Graham Henry believes future Lions tours might need slimming down to Saturday games only.
Although the Lions' 10-match Australian trip was their shortest in history, it still took a crippling toll following an 11-month domestic season.
Several players failed to last the distance, including serious test team candidates like Lawrence Dallaglio, Dan Luger and Mike Catt, and it was a patched-up Lions side that took on Australia in Saturday's test series decider.
"You are probably talking about Saturday games only, with a smaller squad," said Henry, in the aftermath of his team's 29-23 defeat at Stadium Australia.
"The game has changed from an amateur to a professional game, and players are under huge demand from a number of different sources, including clubs and unions.
"The Lions coaches felt for the Tuesday group of players, because you just couldn't do the right kind of preparation.
"The only day you could get the players together was on the Monday. These gentlemen who were playing in that team are used to building for a game from a Sunday through to Saturday for their countries and their clubs," Henry said.
"We thought maybe - and there needs to be some discussion on this - that there should be a reduced number of players, 28 or something like that, and just concentrate on having one game a week, building correctly for those games and going on from there," he said.
PA