The NRL’s version of the game has been running since 2010 when Darren Lockyer and Benji Marshall led a crack NRL All Stars outfit against a Jonathan Thurston and Wendell Sailor - didgeridoo post-try celebration and all - Indigenous side, who recorded a memorable 16-12 win on the Gold Coast.

Thereafter the inspiration for all indigenous players at the top level of the sport was born.

But the same can’t be said for the NRL All Stars team.

A revolving door almost from the moment the side is selected, the NRL All Stars team has, annually, four or five players pull out of the game for one reason or another - Tigers rake Robbie Farah has withdrawn from this year’s game to attend the Super Bowl, which maybe the strangest excuse of all.

And that’s what I’d like to see done differently from players in our region.

Simply, get around the concept.

If the game is to grow and become something Group 10 can hang its hat on as a regular pre-season outing for players, officials and sponsors, then the match needs the support of the players, all of them, and more importantly club coaches.

The game can’t afford a throng of withdrawals.

It needs the best players to match up against the best indigenous players - think a halves pairing of Mick Sullivan and Garry Reilly against that of Terry Brown and Jeremy Gordon.

Or Terawhiti Cooper smashing Blayney Bears teammate Will Ingram up-front.

Then there’s Bassmann against Robbins - both were part of the 2013 CYMS premiership side - and the likes of Warren Williams and Jono Van Veen battling with green and golds’ recruit Mitch Davis and new Magpies coach Rory Brien at Cowra’s Sid Kallas Oval on April 2.

It’s a seriously mouth watering proposition.

But, again, one that has to have the support of everyone to work, because there have been similar All Star bubbles burst in the past.

Group 11 ran an All Stars concept in 2013, but that’s the last year the Indigenous All Stars and Group 11 All Stars ran out on to Dubbo’s Caltex Park.

On the other side of the coin, Group Nine, to their credit, has run a successful concept since 2011, with their Indigenous side gunning for its sixth straight victory. 

Someone from Group 10 better get on the blower to Group Nine and ask what they’ve done to make their clash so successful.

Clearly, and I’ll bet Group Nine officials can testify to it, a lot of work will go into just getting the game off the ground, so the least the players can do is nominate and be part of what will be a memorable evening at Cowra in April