On one side there's you, who asserts that the nines is easy work and everyone should send full-strength squads. On the other there is basically every NRL coach, who believe it's unhelpful for full-season preparation. I know who I'm going to believe.
I think they'd be more worried about injury than burn out. We wouldn't have origin if it was up to the coaches.
There is also the fact that basically no other successful sport in the world is going down the route of adding more competitions - with the possible exception of cricket, I guess. Sports administrators know that fans have limited capacity to care about new tournaments, and teams know that without massive squads they simply can't play full intensity for endless games.
Soccer: big clubs basically care about their domestic league and the Champions League. Star players are routinely rested for domestic cup competitions and the UEFA Cup. Big teams play lots of money-spinning friendlies, but with mixed squads and at low intensity.
NFL: the pro bowl has become a half-pace, non-contact knockabout. Efforts to extend the regular season to 18 from 16 games have encountered significant resistance.
Rugby union: a bit different because the international game dominates, but fixture congestion and player burnout is a major issue especially in Europe. Sevens is now a completely separate code with no player crossover.
AFL: the pre-season tournament is viewed as a warm up by most/all teams, and played at half pace. The international rules games have all but disappeared.
Cricket: the addition of T20 has been a huge game-changer, of course - but mainly because there is more cash in the new version of the game than the old one. Interest in 50 over and test cricket is declining, player (especially bowler) fatigue is a huge issue, and you don't see international players turning out for their clubs or even states more than once or twice a year for a tune up.
And yet you want NRL clubs not only to commit their full squads to a meaningless pre-season tournament played under completely different rules but to go at it full-intensity? It's nonsense.
What players are training for in pre-season is the demands of regular season rugby league. Playing 80 minutes, defensive structure, honing set moves. None of this stuff applies to nine-a-side football in short bursts - it's a totally different code and not helpful for preparing for the real season.
We have to play in the 9's tournament so we may as well try and win the thing. Give the players a tiny sniff of some actual success.
