OPINION: The news the NZ Warriors will only play eleven games in New Zealand next year is disheartening, although not completely unsurprising, but the pain for fans goes much deeper than that.
Not only does the game owe a great deal to the club and local fans for keeping the game going through COVID-19, the NRL has missed a golden chance to smash their way back into a market crying out for action.
It seems bringing games to Aotearoa, inspiring the next generation of stars and promoting all the very best rugby league has to offer has simply been put into the too hard basket.
Warriors chief executive Cameron George summed it up best, declaring the governing body has simply missed a trick.
"[The NRL] has absolutely missed an opportunity, big time" George told Newshub.
"They've put the All Stars game here in Rotorua next year, but it should be here every second year, that's a given.
"They've definitely missed an opportunity here in my view to ignite the country's interest in rugby league."
For all the hype and big talk from the likes of Peter V'landys and Andrew Abdo lauding the Warriors for their sacrifice, boasting about growing the game in New Zealand and 'giving back', there will be little to show for it in terms of bringing the game's best and brightest here in 2023.
New Zealand, and its importance to the game, looks to be an afterthought once again.
"The big thing that's missing here from the NRL's perspective, it's the game here in New Zealand, and the game gives so much to the NRL in general," added George.
"Notwithstanding what we've done in the last couple of years. Across every club ,the environment here from a playing talent perspective delivers a lot of talent throughout the NRL."
Young talent that won't get as much of a chance as they would have hoped to see their heroes play here.
Would bringing a few extra games here break the bank? Probably not. Would clubs and players suffer greatly with a week of extra travel? Hardly.
George doesn't think the NRL actually did enough to entice clubs to buy in, so why would they? He believes if there was enough of a reason, club's would have been keen.
'Build it and they will come' as the saying goes," he said.
"If you could put an incentive in place for clubs to come to New Zealand for a game, I'm sure that would happen. The one entity that could do that is the NRL.
"It was never about the New Zealand Warriors, it was about the game in general, and the fans. Hence why we said we were happy to play anywhere [and] not at Mount Smart.
"I was really hopeful the NRL would put a financial carrot out there for clubs to do that, to pay back the game and New Zealanders in general."
No carrot, no games. What a slap in the face for league fans.
"If it was a state of Australia and you hadn't played rugby league there for three years, I'm pretty sure the NRL would be doing things a little bit differently in year one when returning the sport back to those states," George said.
"New Zealand shouldn't be any different."
Sadly, the NRL doesn't appear to see it that way.
James Regan is Newshub sport's rugby league reporter
