Is there really the appetite for a 9's comp here yet?
We had one at Headingley but neither clubs nor fans properly committed to it.

That is an insular and short sighted view. We should be reaching out to get as many teams in it as possible, and make sure that we send over strong teams and try to win it every single year.

International competition is what raises the profile of sports in the media and with potential sponsors.

I like the idea of a nines. I'd be more inclined to watch other teams play 20 minute games than I am watching 2 or 3 other 80min games, and I'd like watching the Championship teams as well.

Big yes from me

I agree to a certain extent but you have to be realistic. We have a 30 game plus playoff and CC league season starting from 2015, and we start atleast a month earlier than the NRL. How can we possibly fit several teams going to play in a NRL pre-season 9's tournament around that? Wigan could have played in the 9's this year as a WCC warm-up, but we had to start a week early and also have another fixture to reschedule at some point, it'd be chaos if that was the case for 4 teams.

I think we've got more chance of raising our profile with an extended WCC than we do by including a few token SL teams in the NRL 9's.

The Dubai idea seems to me just following what Union do. It would serve no purpose for the game here or Australia, other than just maybe attracting wealthy investors into the game (which would be good). From a sporting and development point of view I can't see being of any value.

You can have 3 preseason regional tournaments over a weekend, East, West, France.
Those top teams from each region then go on the summer tournament at Eithiad stadium.