Paul Gallen calls for trials to be banned following injury

[dukey]

Cronulla's Paul Gallen calls for trials to be banned following serious injury
By Dean Ritchie, Fox Sports
March 02, 2009 Facing six weeks out with injury, Cronulla's State of Origin forward Paul Gallen has called for all NRL trial games to be banned.

Gallen will learn today if a serious knee injury he suffered during the Sharks' 14-10 trial win over Newcastle at Cessnock will put him out of action for a prolonged spell.

Teammates Reni Maitua (ankle), Anthony Tupou (neck) and Jacob Selmes (collarbone) also collected injuries during the trial match.

Maitua, like Gallen, will have scans today and could be out for up to 12 weeks.

Gallen hyper-extended his knee and is looking at a recovery of between two and six weeks, with Cronulla's forward depth already stretched after losing Greg Bird and Fraser Anderson.

"Personally I would like it (trial matches banned)," Gallen said yesterday. "I think if everyone agrees to it, it would save injuries and everyone would be on the same level.

"In 2002, I did an ankle in trials, in '04 I hurt my hamstring. In '06 it was my back and in '07 I injured my ankle and missed nine games.

"It probably sounds like I'm whingeing and I know there are games like the Charity Shield and World Club Challenge, but trial games can give clubs a heap of injuries. Everyone holds their breath in trial games. Everyone just hopes players get through it unscathed.

"Trials don't mean a hell of a lot and we were pretty badly scarred on the weekend.

"I'm pretty sore. The leg was pushed beyond the normal range. It was a bit scary when it first happened. I knew straight away I had hurt it bad."

Calls for a ban are becoming an annual event with clubs privately terrified that their season could be ruined before it has even begun.

Canberra were also ravaged by injury during the weekend's trial against the Bulldogs in Brisbane.

Scott Logan (ankle), Dane Tilse (ankle), Marc Herbert (ankle), Stuart Flanagan (knee) and Trevor Thurling (ankle) picked up injuries.

Tilse and Logan could be out for between six and eight weeks.

"You don't like trials when you lose valuable players - that's why the Broncos don't play Darren Lockyer," Raiders chairman John McIntyre said.

Newcastle have their own injury concerns through Ben Cross (concussion), Cory Paterson (corked buttock) and Kurt Gidley (six stitches in a head gash), while Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith (knee) and North Queensland's Ty Williams (shoulder) are in doubt for the opening NRL round.

Cronulla coach Ricky Stuart said the injuries would severely test his club's forward depth.

"This is not the way we want to spend the final two weeks preparing for our first premiership game," Stuart said.

"But trials are a necessary evil. We certainly need trial matches because we have a lot of new players in important positions.

"We have a little more depth this season in the forwards so that will be tested early."

Roosters coach Brad Fittler said trials "serve a purpose" while Bulldogs coach Kevin Moore said injuries simply happen in rugby league.

Poor Gallen. Perhaps we should also ban the regular season and the finals, just to make sure nobody gets hurt?

 

[Coxy]

I can see his point, but at the same time look at how rusty a lot of clubs are in their trial games. Better to be rusty in the preseason than rusty for 2-3 rounds of the premiership.

Plus trial games are one of the few opportunities to take NRL games to the country.

 

[Coxy]

All clubs are required to hold 2 trial games I believe.

But to say they have zero bearing on the season is ridiculous. It's about gaining match fitness. You watch, teams who don't play trials would be smashed by those that do early in the season.

 

[Coxy]

But if the Broncos go into the season underdone they might well lose 4 games on the trot and be last.
Even with a playmaker missing, they could still jag some wins if they're drilled and match fit.

That's the gamble you take.

I like that the Broncos only gave Locky 40 minutes of trial time. That's all he needs.

Gallen can suck it up. Forwards are the ones that need as much game time as possible to get used to it. If you get injured, too fucking bad. He's overrated anyway :P

 

[Steve]

I believe trials have merit. Lockyer was extremely rusty on the weekend with dropped balls, kicks out on the full etc. I'd rather he make those mistakes in a trial than in rd 1 where Nth Qld would make him pay. Clubs don't have to play their big names in trial games anyway.

Injuries don't just happen in trial games. They happen at training also. It's bad luck, nothing more but it doesn't mean trials should be canned. And as mentioned - any measure to take the game to country areas should be maintained.

 

[BroncoMatt]

I'd actually like to see a pre season KO Comp in place not unlike the NAB Cup in the AFL. Get a sponsor behind and have some decent prizemoney involved for the winner.

All the matches need to be in the country or provincial cities that don't normally get a tatse of the NRL. It would at least give the trials some meaning.

And just like the AFL the clubs who want to take it seriously can, while the others it gives them a chance to give thier rookies a run.
With 16 clubs its an ideal time to run such a omp

 

[Flutterby]

You can just as easily get a serious injury in game 1 of the season proper - in effect same overall outcome for the team.

 

[mick]

Exactly what I was going to point out, Flutterby. I would LOL hard if trial games were "banned", and someone then suffered a season ending injury five minutes into round one. Gallen's a twat.