NRL: Morris wants trials axed

Brett Morris. Photo / Getty Images

Test star Brett Morris has proposed scrapping pre-season trial matches amid fears rugby league's ever-expanding schedule has reached breaking point.

The NRL on Thursday used the Auckland Nines launch as the stage to hail rugby league as the premier year-long football code in Australia.

Ignoring fears of player burnout after more than a dozen stars were unavailable for last month's Four Nations tournament, won by New Zealand, the league was instead spruiking the game's new never-ending season.

The NRL's head of commercial, Paul Kind, revealed the league's official 2015 season launch would take place two days before the Nines starting on January 31 "because we see rugby league as a sport that delivers a 12-month calendar with better variety than any other code in the country".

"You look at the Nines, we follow up with the All Stars two weeks later, a World Club Challenge series in the UK into a 30-week premiership and an Origin (series), which includes going to the MCG.

"So no other sport can offer that sort of variety."

Kind said the Nines, which offered $2.25 million in prize money for its inaugural event last year, had the full support of all 16 NRL teams.

"If you go back 12 months, if anyone doubted the success of this competition it was going to be around the way the clubs and players embraced it," he said.

"What we saw in Auckland, apart from capacity crowds and wonderful atmosphere, was the way the clubs supported the concept.

"We love this event. We think it's got huge potential to get even bigger."

But as it does, Morris believes trial games must go.

"I understand that the fans want to see their football but, if it was up to me, there would probably be no trial games," Canterbury's prized 2015 recruit told AAP.

"Everyone starts at the same time and if you're ready, you're ready to go. If you're not, you get found out.

"But especially with the Nines, the All Stars games, I think there's enough footy in the build-up to the season to maybe miss a couple of trial games and you can start the season."

Representatives from every NRL club attended the Nines launch, with each and every one expressing their support for the two-day tournament.

But with the code's elite stars being asked to front up for more than 30 matches a season for club, state and country - and South Sydney, Brisbane and St George Illawarra also featuring in the inaugural World Club Challenge series in February - some believe enough is enough.

"Obviously every year the competition seems to rise a level and get faster and harder and obviously the players' welfare needs to be taken into consideration," Morris said.

Morris's concerns come days after Melbourne superstar Billy Slater, recovering from shoulder surgery, called on the league to shorten the season.

Slater's clubmate Ryan Hinchliffe also weighed in on Thursday, saying the ankle surgery that will keep Storm, Queensland and Australian captain Cameron Smith out of action for two months may prove a blessing in disguise.

"He's played an unbelievable amount of footy over the last two years," Hinchcliffe said.

"From a player's point of view, they really need to have a look at the structure and the scheduling because the constant load that the players are under, and the intensity of those extra games that they're playing on top of the games they're playing in the competition, is just huge."

- AAP