Splitting the NRL competition into two conferences would be unfair for some teams, according to former Kangaroos star Gorden Tallis.
A radical proposal to isolate two ‘bubbles’ of teams, in NSW and Queensland, for a 14-week regular season is believed to be gathering steam at league central.
One conference would include eight Sydney-based teams, while the remaining eight sides would be quarantined in the sunshine state.
There are suggestions points earned from the two rounds of games completed before the coronavirus-enforced shutdown could be scrapped.
St George Illawarra, based one hour south of Sydney in Wollongong, could be asked to cross the border along with Newcastle Knights.
Each team would face each other twice before a four-week finals series, taking the entire season to 18 weeks, not including State of Origin.
The idea is understood to be one of a handful of scenarios the innovation committee will consider when it meets on Thursday.
Only two of the six teams who won their opening two games of the season come out of Sydney: Parramatta and Penrith.
The other four are Newcastle, Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne, all four of whom would be allocated to the non-Sydney conference.
Tallis, who played 16 Tests for Australia, is not convinced by the two-conference plan.
“I don’t believe in two conferences. I really don’t,” he said on Fox League Live.
“If you’re a Queenslander, and you’re going to go to Sydney and play in front of an empty stadium, then you’ve got to go.
“Everybody’s got to play each other once, but there can’t be two conferences.
“I don’t think it’s fair on some teams that would be in the conferences, because one conference will be weaker than the other. There’s no doubt about that.”
Tallis also dismissed the notion of resuming the season with State of Origin, saying that after a long lay-off it would dilute the standard of the rivalry.
“What makes Origin so special is the standard that it’s played at, what the players put their body through,” he said.
“And it’s the best product that we can get on our television set. So you don’t want to dilute that by not having everybody fit, fighting and raring to go.”
