Following ARLC's decision to boycott this year's Rugby League World Cup, our minds drifted back to some comments V'landys made on Fox Sports earlier this year when pressed about the game's controversial high-tackle crackdown.

It was a hot-button issue in the wake of Magic Round and, as is his wont, V'landys came out swinging.

"There's too many people around who are 'cannot people', you're giving me all the reasons why you can't do something," he told NRL 360.

"Why don't you give me some reasons we can do it? Why not unite as a game like we did against COVID and defeat the challenge of COVID?"

Those words now seem very hollow after the Commission gave the middle finger to the tournament that is - in the purest sense - the game's pinnacle.

Backed by the Commission, V'landys has shown an incredible ability to move heaven and earth to ensure the NRL competition can continue.

The New Zealand Warriors have been in Australia for the best part of two years. Just last week we've had players and families with hotel balcony doors duct-taped shut to ensure the game can go on so those rivers of broadcast gold can continue to flow.

Rugby league was a "world leader" in getting things done through the pandemic as sport shutdown around the globe. All of a sudden though, V'landys and the Commission are 'cannot people'?

Just think, if we were talking about State of Origin, would the Commission have let anything stand in the way of it going ahead? It's the game's fattest cash cow and it will be milked come hell or high water.

The lunacy of holding the tournament at the same time as a little event called the FIFA World Cup next year has apparently escaped those seeking a postponement.

They also seem to think the $45 million organisers have sourced from the government in the UK will just sit there for 12 months.

There'll be protestations to the contrary, but there's no doubt clubs have pushed back against the tournament being held.

With other NRL players not tied to the Kangaroos or Kiwis set to represent Pacific nations, it's a clear attempt by the ARLC to white-ant the entire tournament for the benefit of the NRL competition.

It's a motive hidden behind a very thin veil of player welfare.

It if it really is about player welfare, why not simply give players the option of withdrawing individually? Players rule themselves out due to various circumstances ahead of any overseas tour.

No one would blame anyone if they determined the toll of taking part was too great. Instead, players have publicly stated their desire to play the tournament in a nation that has recently hosted the Euro Final, Wimbledon and a Grand Prix.

The clubs' approach is not surprising, the broader good of the game and success in clubland are not paths that run parallel to one another. The maintenance of an Australia-New Zealand small-world duopoly is in their interest.

It is the 'Australian Rugby League Commission' that should act with a view to the game's greater good. The international game is essential to that.

Ask yourself, what's the last thing the ARLC did that was a tangible boost to the international game?

Current Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga wants to stand in the way of State of Origin players representing Pacific nations at Test level.

With this move, the ARLC are actually showing themselves to be drifting out of touch with their own game.

Players of Pasifika heritage now make up 50 per cent of the NRL. The game, despite itself, is outgrowing limited NSW-Queensland, Australia-New Zealand rivalries.

Talk of Indigenous and Maori All-Stars sides participating in place of Australia and New Zealand is unlikely to come to fruition, but it would be great to see.

Neither are Test-playing nations, but the passion with which both sides play illustrates the power representing one's heritage holds. We've seen that in the rise of Tonga in recent years.

We're still in the midst of a global pandemic. If a consensus call to cancel or postpone the tournament had been reached, it would be hard to argue. That's demonstrably not been the case.

Most galling of all, in the past 18 months the ARLC has had to rely on the goodwill of state and federal governments for countless exemptions, favours and privileges not extended to the broader community in order to keep the NRL going.

The IRL has done all that, and more, to see a global event get the go ahead. With the shoe on the other foot, what's the ARLC's response? Nah, too hard.

RFL chairman Simon Johnson summed it up best. The decision is "selfish, parochial and cowardly."