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Indigenous All Star Rugby league players Johnathan Thurston and Greg Inglis. Source:News Limited
THE NRL is refusing to concede the annual NRL Indigenous All Stars clash is dead - despite the concept being sacrificed next season, just four years after its inception.
All Stars coach Wayne Bennett has been asked to join the NRL at a press conference on Thursday to announce a major overhaul of next year's pre-season.
It will see the inclusion of an inaugural NRL Nines event in Auckland which, despite its $2.2 million prizemoney, has been criticised by Penrith general manager Phil Gould.
Rugby league's end-of-year World Cup, which concludes with the final on November 30, has led to the All Stars, which is usually held in the second week of February, being squeezed from next year's pre-season.
More than 100 NRL players from Australia, New Zealand, England, Papua New Guinea, Italy, Tonga and the Cook Islands will play at the World Cup.
An email obtained by The Daily Telegraph detailing the 2014 pre-season calendar and a subsequent phone hook-up of all 16 clubs yesterday confirmed the overhaul.
The fear of forcing the game's elite, including World Cup certainties Greg Inglis, Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston, Billy Slater, Sam Burgess, Kieran Foran and Shaun Johnson, into making themselves available for the All Stars just eight weeks after the World Cup was the main reason behind the NRL's decision to scrap the annual exhibition match.
The NRL considered persisting with the All Stars concept next year without using the best players, but felt the integrity of the match would be damaged and have suspended it until 2015.
The inclusion of the lucrative Nines, which is set for the weekend of February 15 at Eden Park in Auckland, was the final nail in the All Stars' coffin.
Instead, the NRL is planning to continue the All Stars theme by working within the indigenous community through a series of camps and a one-off match in Newcastle between the best under-20 indigenous players.
Those closest to the All Stars concept, including the brainchild behind the tournament, former NRL star Preston Campbell, and Indigenous All Stars coach Laurie Daley, said they could appreciate the stance taken by the NRL.
"With the World Cup, I assumed the boys would back up but when I went away and looked at it, it is a big ask for them and we don't want them to burn out. They need their rest," Campbell said. "It is a big ask."
Daley, who has coached the Indigenous side for the past three years, said there was no point playing the All Stars if the game's best weren't available.
"If that's the decision that is going to be made, it's obviously disappointing," Daley said.
"But having said that, you can't play the All Stars and have your best players not there. It's a fair decision and they'll still go ahead with the week's activities and cultural aspects and camps, and that will be good."
The Nines will see all 16 clubs represented, with every team picking up a minimum $90,000 in prizemoney. The winner will pocket $450,000.
The Nines concept will be funded by promoter Dean Lonergan, but it has already run into criticism from Gould.
"The Sevens, or Nines, or whatever it is they want to propose, holds no interest for me whatsoever," Gould said.
"I think it's a cheap gimmick. I think it's an over-use of our players. I think it is an abuse of the players' profiles."
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