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Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson says the NRL missed a prime opportunity to trial the proposed conference system during the 2020 season.

Trent Robinson says the NRL missed the perfect chance to trial a conference system last season when the competition was in limbo during the COVID-19 shut down.

The Sydney Roosters coach was a vocal proponent of trialling two conferences when the competition was given a major overhaul last year to survive the pandemic.

As part of the committee that worked to restructure the league in 2020, Robinson was in favour of trialling any creative idea in the shortened season to help inform the NRL's vision of the future.

"We definitely did (miss the opportunity)," he said on Thursday.

"It was a good opportunity with a revamped competition to get that on, but that's by-the-by now, if they're still looking at it that means there must be some merit in it."

Last year the idea was scuppered over concerns it would compromise the integrity of the competition after already playing two rounds before the season was paused.

But now that it's back on the agenda, Robinson says the idea still has merit.

"It works, there's cases around the world where it works very well," he said.

"But it'll be interesting to see how that conversation gets brought up and how they're going to actually test that model."

League bosses have been bringing the idea to clubs, proposing the competition split into two nine-team conferences once the league expands to 18 teams within the next few years.

Around half of the NRL clubs have already been briefed on the idea, which is still in the infancy of conception.

However, the main concerns for out-of Sydney clubs already appears to be the toll of travel demands as well as what a final series and decider would look like.

In one concept the two winning teams from each conference would play the NRL grand final, making it impossible to have two Sydney or Queensland rivals in the decider.

Jason Taumalolo says it would be a shame to prevent Queensland rivals playing in a grand final, with the 2015 decider between North Queensland and Brisbane considered among the best in NRL history.

"That would be pretty disappointing as Queensland fans would love to see it again," the Cowboys skipper said.

"I was fortunate enough to be a part of one of them. Hopefully, I'll be part of another one in the future."

Under the current proposal Melbourne would fall into the out-of Sydney category along with Newcastle, Canberra, Warriors, the Queensland teams and two new franchises.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy can see the advantages for Sydney rivalries, but wants to ensure the NRL has developed enough talent to maintain 18 teams.

"They're thinking of adding a couple of new sides so we need to be a little bit aware of our talent and the depth of our talent well," he said.