KEY POINTS:
Wayne Bennett didn't believe in the All Blacks' rotation policy of 2007. He told them so at an All Blacks thinktank in Auckland ahead of the 2008 international season.
He criticised a decision by coach Graham Henry to wrap his players in cotton wool ahead of last year's World Cup but also got stuck into All Blacks who moan about the number of games they have to play.
There's no such thing as rotation in rugby league. Occasionally there's management of a player who is showing signs of fatigue or is struggling with a niggling injury and needs a week off or a young player coming to grips with the NRL.
Otherwise, the best 17 are picked every week. And many play an NRL game only 24 hours after a test or 48 hours after State of Origin.
Steve Price is one such player. The Warriors skipper sees backing up after Origin and playing consistently well is a mental and physical challenge he enjoys and recoils at the thought of rotation. It goes against everything he believes in.
"I would really hate it," he says. "When they [the All Blacks] spoke about it at the start of last year, I couldn't understand it.
"When it comes to internationals, I would be really upset and disappointed at the end of my career to know I could have played 30 tests and only played 15 because there was a coach who decided to rest me. If you're the best player, you should be playing in that position every time."
One of the features of the Warriors' golden run in the second half of 2007, when they lost only two of their last 12 games, was the stability of the side. Combinations were well established.
They used 21 players throughout that run and coach Ivan Cleary made two changes only three times. For three consecutive games he put out the same side - they won all three - and most changes were forced by injury or unavailability.
Some players need the occasional break but others can and need to play every week. Micheal Luck has played 63 consecutive games since joining the Warriors in 2006 while Simon Mannering has had a similarly tough workload with 56 consecutive NRL games, as well as 12 tests, since the middle of 2006. Rotation isn't in their vocabulary.
There was some talk during the early weeks of this year's competition about the number of players sustaining serious injuries and the possible need for rotation. Again, Price dismisses that. He says there's a spike in injuries at the start of every season as players get accustomed to games again, but that it always settles down.
He was one of those injured players, missing eight games after sustaining a hamstring tear in the opening match of the season. It was on his return, he says, that he got a good understanding of what it must have been like for the All Blacks who were reconditioned before the World Cup and entered the Super 14 late.
"I have not been injured early in a season before and come back mid-season," he explains. "It really shocked me. Everyone has had 10-12 weeks of match fitness and getting into the groove and when I came in it was just like jumping on the motorway from a standing start and everyone is doing 110km/h. It blew me away.
"I could really understand why last year guys [in the All Blacks] were getting injured or they were really struggling because it's really hard to catch up in a short time. The expectations are so high on you, it would have been terrible.
"I wouldn't enjoy sitting on the sideline when I know I can play. That would be really hard. Your career doesn't go for very long, whether it's club, state or international level. One of the reasons I haven't retired from rep footy is that I would be very disappointed sitting there watching and knowing that I could be there if I hadn't retired or been rested. It would eat at me."
Just like rotation does for most observers.
