I dont think if an NRL star is carrying a knee injury at risk of a lengthy time out would be risked in most games.

I do think it far more likely they would be played in a WCC prior to 0 clubs games as compared to a WCC prior to an entire season of games.

But a GF team is obviously going to have a lot of players carrying knocks and issues at the end of a long season. In February it won't be anywhere near that as players are fit and fresh.

Of course. Its well known that in terms of fitness and conditioning teams aim to peak prior to the season starting and not towards the end of the season.

Doesn't matter when they try to peak for, the teams will still have many more injuries and knocks in October than February.

You know thats when we play internationals right?

Yes and that's when several guys are always ruled out through injury and if they clubs had their way (which they would for a post season WCC) you'd more than likely see even more withdrawn.

The wigan-penrith crowd was fairly disappointing for a decider between the top teams of their respective hemispheres played at a time when both might have been expected to be at their peak, or certainly at a better level than they're at in today's WCC. Any reason for that? Novelty wearing thin?
I'm not saying the logistics of a game played then are impossible but I do wonder whether it would hold the interest of the average fan whenever it was played. Certainly the series of WCC games involving Leeds saw a fairly rapid drop off from the 38k-odd that were at the Bulldogs fixture. And recent fixtures involving different teams are little better.

And what, precisely, has the last weekend in February got going for it?

An extra 4 months of planning, marketing, promoting it, selling tickets. Do you honestly think the RFL and SL clubs can do the same job in just two weeks on the half chance that the lineups are the same as in the GF's?

Playing it the season after detracts immensely from what it is meant to represent.

Agree.

The main reason is that as a sport we shoehorn our International season into a single month at the end of the season. There just isn't the time to do it then as it stands.

The SL/NRL calendars would need lining up properly to have the GF's on the same weekend. In fact, the whole RL calendar needs lining up between the SL/NRL with dedicated International breaks (perhaps whilst Aus play Origin over 3 consecutive weekends).

Don't talk sense!

We should continue to play seasons that don't match up, making internationals and the like impractical or trivial due to understrength teams while also playing under different sets of rules to each other...

That maybe correct but still doesn't mean it's a smart idea to try hastily arranging the game in 2 weeks.

And how long do you get for the Grand Final ?

If the Venue is sorted, it shouldn't be a major hassle and depending what happens with the 4N, many players would probably be over here or in Aus anyway.
There maybe some disruption to the planning for the National team though.

As a Leeds fan you surely admit that, the Leeds team that played in the last WCS bore no resemblance to the triple winners of the season before and as such, the game was not Champions vs Champions and this rendered the game meaningless.
Ok it was a test of the "new" Leeds team vs their Aussie counterparts but, not the game that it should have been.
Also, the extended games were just space fillers, with no meaning whatsoever and if we're going to increase the number of clubs, it should be Champions vs Champions, Cup Winners vs Cup Winners etc and not just random games.
Of course, if one club won more than one title, there would need to be some kind of system for allowing the runners up to
play.
The concept becomes much harder to market if we dont have bonafide contenders.