Players reporting they could barely breathe during a trial that had the intensity of a finals match shouldn’t be seen by NRL powerbrokers as vindication for their vision for the game. To clarify, this was due to new rule changes, not sides having failed to train the house down in what was no doubt their best pre-season ever.

On the face of things, the NRL has already achieved some of its aims to make the game even quicker than it was last season, when the six-again rule for ruck infringements turbo-charged game play. Not content with what it had seen in a compressed season, the option has now been introduced for violations of the 10m offside line at the play-the-ball.

Scrums have been dispensed with for when a the ball is carried or kicked into touch as well, with teams now using a play-the-ball restart. That has already caused concern that it disadvantages the attacking team in certain scenarios, which it does, and must surely be tweaked to give the side with the ball the either/or option once the season begins.

The result in the Panthers-Eels trial, one of a full set across the weekend, meant the ball was in play for 32 minutes in the first half, up almost five minutes from the average half of football during last year’s NRL season. But at what price? The game now covets fatigue as a telling factor, which it should to a degree, but the feedback from players must be of concern, not only to the quality of football we will see in 2021 but their safety and durability.