Call me old-fashioned but I just can't see the point of the NAB Cup and the AFL's ridiculously long pre-season.
With the start of the official AFL season still three weeks away, already six players have succumbed to season-ending knee injuries in meaningless matches.
The AFL argues that a player can be injured at any time but if football must be played at this time of year - after all it is still summer - then at least extend the home and away season and play matches that actually mean something.
To have a five week lead-in to a 22-week season - plus four weeks of finals - just makes no sense, particularly in a competition which already has a hopelessly compromised draw in which all clubs do not play each other twice.
With 16 teams, it would take 30 rounds to achieve that - which is impossible - but a 24- or 26-round season would at least enable more teams to play each other twice and create a more equitable fixture.
A 24-round season would allow for a shortened pre-season of two weeks thus limiting the amount of time in which players can get injured before the season starts.
That way the AFL could still use the pre-season to 'sell' its code as it does now by playing practice matches in places that don't normally get to see live AFL football such as Cairns, Albany, Alice Springs, Narrandera, Bendigo and Shepparton.
These matches would essentially be just warm-up games - as they are now - and not part of any organised competition such as the NAB Cup.
At present all 16 teams take part in the NAB Cup - a knockout competition played on regular AFL venues - while the losers then play in practice matches across far-flung locations across the country.
But why not scrap the NAB Cup completely and just play two weeks of practice matches before an extended home and away season - as Kangaroos coach Dean Laidley suggested recently when he labeled last Friday's practice match against Brisbane as a waste of time.
A two week pre-season would also limit the amount of travel clubs have to endure before the start of the home and away season as well as building up the mystery and the intrigue before the start of the premiership season.
In contrast the current system over-exposes the game and the clubs and unnecessarily dampens the expectations for many fans even before the