Debate has re-emerged around the continued presence of the All-Stars game on the rugby league calendar after nine players from last year\u2019s match are set to be unavailable.<\/p>\n
The annual pre-season clash between the Indigenous All Stars and Maori All Stars has been a staple on the rugby league calendar since 2019 after replacing the NRL All Stars clash.<\/p>\n
The match has long been an important way of showcasing the best of Australia and New Zealand\u2019s Indigenous cultures, but questions have risen around the long-term place of the game due to a declining number of recognised stars being available each year and the ever-growing schedule.<\/p>\n
Players heading to Vegas for Round 1, Broncos\u2019 players away for the World Club Challenge and those facing suspension, will be unavailable for the clash, while players may rest from the contest to manage injuries ahead of the upcoming 27 round season.<\/p>\n
However, South Sydney Rabbitohs\u2019 forward Jai Arrow has defended the contest, believing the educational and cultural value the game provides is too important to let go.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the concept,\u201d Arrow told SEN 1170 Drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love what it\u2019s all about. I love how two cultures get to come together and\u2026 represent their names and family, and learn about it as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s definitely, as a fan, the one on the calendar that I look forward to.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love when boys are representing their culture and I suppose raising or teaching people like myself who probably aren’t as cultured as they are to learn about what they’re about.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn’t go unknown that those two sides get stuck into each other, so I don’t see why they would take that away from the fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the concept and I’d love to see more of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s clash is expected to include many of Arrow\u2019s Rabbitohs teammates including Cody Walker, Jayden Sullivan, and Jack Wighton. It is unclear if Latrell Mitchell and David Fifita will play after suffering from minor injuries during the pre-season.<\/p>\n
However, the match will be missing some of rugby league\u2019s biggest names including Kotoni Staggs, Reece Walsh, Kalyn Ponga, and Leo Thompson as they will be overseas when the game is played on February 15 in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
SEN\u2019s Corey Parker was one to question the continued place of the game on the NRL calendar, with the lack of available stars the major question mark over the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe All-Stars game\u2026 because of the scheduling of it and the timing of it, who’s going to play?,\u201d Parker questioned on SENQ Breakfast.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone’s had an opinion in and around, well, maybe it’s just not worth having, maybe it is, and everyone’s got differing opinions.<\/p>\n
\u201cClubs\u2026 won’t come out and publicly say it, but they’re reluctant to hand over their trump cards for an, inverted commas, exhibition match.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand it brings so much more with it, but that’s what the clubs are reluctant to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teams for the contest will be announced in the next week before teams go into camp.<\/p>\n
The men\u2019s Maori All Stars will be coached by Adam Blair, while the men\u2019s Indigenous All Stars will be coached by Ron Griffiths.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Debate has re-emerged around the continued presence of the All-Stars game on the rugby league calendar after nine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-444755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}