The NRL schedule for 2015 is a joke, we face another season of player burnout and injuries

THE one thing the NRL should have learnt from this year is that the playing schedule needs to be overhauled and fixed.

NRL playing schedule for 2015 is a joke

THE one thing the NRL should have learnt from this year is that the playing schedule needs to be overhauled and fixed.

Yet here we go again … another year of player burnout, injuries and heat exhaustion because that so-called genius Todd Greenberg and his football department can’t get it right.

To kick-off the season in January is an absolute joke. As I wrote recently, if players were dogs, you’d report the NRL to the RSPCA.

Every sport science expert knows we’re demanding too much of the players.

Most of our elite stars had a short off-season off the back of the World Cup.

They play trials, Auckland Nines, 26 premiership rounds, State of Origin and then finals.

Then again we’ve got the Four Nations at the end of this season.

How Jarryd Hayne’s season could shape up

You wouldn’t put that sort of workload on netball players, let alone players involved in the toughest and most brutal body contact sport in the World

You wouldn’t put that sort of workload on netball players, let alone players involved in the toughest and most brutal body contact sport in the World.

It’s about time the Players Association stood up for their members.

If the Association won’t, the clubs should.

The players are their employees and this ridiculous schedule is cutting their careers short.

It was recently revealed injuries and suspensions forced our stars to miss 69 club games during the State of Origin series.

A lot of these injuries are the result of wear and tear on the body over 12 months, not just the impact of Origin.

Last off-season the Roosters had 15 of their players in England at the World Cup.

Under those circumstances, the fact the club hasn’t performed as well as last season in defending their premiership, is quite understandable.

This week all the club chief executives met for a conference at Moore Park headquarters.

The best they could come up with was a new insurance scheme which we all knew had to happen anyway.

Surely someone in that conference room should have raised the playing schedule and the effect it is having on their employees, the players.

This game is getting more brutal and more demanding every year.

Greenberg joined the NRL and as the hope of the side on a management team that knows little about the actual game. So far, he has let the players and the clubs down.

How Cherry Evans’ season could shape up.

Originally published as The NRL schedule for 2015 is a joke, we face another season of player burnout and injuries