Wynne Gray: Rugby season too trying for staunchest of fans

Graham Henry's side play their final match of the 2011 schedule against Wales this weekend. Photo / Getty Images

Tired, I hear you splutter, as Graham Henry suggests people should cut the All Blacks some slack at the end of a long exhausting season.

Ted didn't want to make a big deal of it, but he certainly wanted his sentiment out in the public arena.

There will be scoffing and sneering from many, those who say the All Blacks don't play enough to justify the multiple hundred-thousand dollar salaries they bank each season. Irrelevant. Forget the salaries, that is simply market forces at work.

Ted's got a serious point here. The rugby season is ridiculously long, from early-February to late-November for those involved in Super rugby as well as international duty. When those players return after their latest grand slam exploits, they have about five weeks off before they resume training for next year's Super series.

It is a physical and mental treadmill, a relentless inquiry of those players for all but a few weeks each year. It is too much. It is an overload for even the staunchest of spectators who like to nod off to sleep counting ruck and maul possessions of their favourite side.

For too long, rugby has encroached on summer and once the seventh World Cup season has concluded next October, and New Zealand comes up for air after the fevered expectation of that tournament, perhaps we can get some breathing space.

Depends on the result of the Webb Ellis Cup really.

If the All Blacks do not hoist the trophy as David Kirk did in 1987, there will be a Chernobyl-style public meltdown. If they succeed, the festivities will be ubiquitous and probably shorter.

Those staying to play rugby in New Zealand in 2012 will get a break they should get every year.

Then they will run slap-bang into another monster footy season.

There will be the expanded 24 weeks of the Super season - impertinently interrupted by a three-test visit from Ireland in June - working through to an early August conclusion before the retooled Four-Nations tournament embraces Argentina until mid-October.

After that, the All Blacks will probably have another trip to the Northern Hemisphere. Underneath these competitions, club rugby and the ITM Cup will be played.

Broadcasters will love it and those who subscribe will like the options of watching, recording or deleting. Asking many to attend all these layers of rugby, consistently in 2012 and beyond, may be several requests too many.

Asking players to perform in such elongated programmes is also a lavish demand and one which will shorten their careers and, eventually, the attention span of sports followers.