The NRL's Indigenous and Māori All Stars teams have been named and there are some big names missing, including, as previously flagged, Latrell Mitchell.
The men's and women's All Stars games are set to be played next Saturday, February 12, at Western Sydney Stadium, but not all of the stars will be there. Far from it.
Check out the full men's and women's All Star squadsMitchell remains suspended for a high shot that saw him miss South Sydney's run to last year's grand final.
Indigenous All Stars coach Laurie Daley said he still expected Mitchell to "be doing something with the team" in the week leading up to the game.
"It certainly would have been special to have Latrell as a part of it and I know he would have wanted to be part of this game but unfortunately he won't be there," he said.
While Mitchell's six-week suspension has rubbed him out of the exhibition match, curiously, he is still eligible for South Sydney's other pre-season games.
The 24-year-old will miss the first two rounds of the premiership season but has been given the go-ahead to play South Sydney's traditional pre-season Charity Shield game against St George Illawarra.
Mitchell can play the February 26 clash because players only miss trial games if they are banned for an offence judged grade three or higher. But all suspensions rule players out of representative matches, including the Indigenous vs Māori All Stars game.
It leaves the clash without one of its biggest stars, but he is not the only player missing from the 40 players named.
Kalyn Ponga, Jack Wighton, Cody Walker and Jarome Luai have also not been named, while the NRL is preparing for more names to drop, as has come to be the case during COVID times.
The league is ready to bring players into All Stars camps until the final minute as it pushes ahead Sydney's high COVID-19 case numbers.
The teams will go into a six-day camp next Monday, with hard restrictions keeping players to training and promotional events during the build-up.
The restrictions will be similar to those imposed on players during the 2020 and 2021 hard bubbles, with some clubs believing it is safer that their players are in the restrictions than in pre-season mode.
Clubs will leave it up to players if they are happy to make the commitment, while the players' union is also set to meet with the NRL later this week to iron out some of the protocols.
The NRL was forced to call in players at the last minute for the fixture in 2021 because of border closures.
Similar contingencies are in place this year should there be COVID-19 cases in the training camps.
And there are concerns some players who have featured in recent seasons will miss the game because of injury fears for under-done players after a pre-season already impacted by COVID-19.
ABC/AAP
