As the jewel in the crown of rugby league in Australia, State of Origin deserves to be played on a Saturday. Currently played on a Wednesday night, the league is reluctant to move the three fixtures to a weekend time slot due to the following reasons.
Firstly, the massive television ratings these games receive on a weekday. Secondly, if the three games are moved to the weekend, there will be no other games of rugby league on television.
Let’s say that to get State of Origin moved to a weekend, these two above points need to be satisfied.
Firstly, I believe that television ratings will be high for these games regardless of when they are played – although I admit that ratings may be slightly down on a weekend compared to a weekday, particularly in non-traditional rugby league heartlands, as there will be competition from other football codes. But I still think that State of Origin ratings will still be high regardless.
The second point is a little more difficult to address. One possible suggestion that has been mooted and gained support at the recent chief executives meeting at Byron Bay is a New Zealand versus Pacific Islanders Origin-style series.
The development of this series would mean an additional game of rugby league, which could be played on a Friday night with NSW battling Queensland on the Saturday. However, I believe that there is room for additional representative games on this weekend. As Papua New Guinea has been left out of the Pacific Islands team, which will be made up of players from Tonga, Somoa, the Cook Islands and Fiji, a window has been opened for the PNG national side to play other teams. But who?
I suggest that PNG should play in a four-team round robin format with a NSW A team, a Queensland A team, and a New Zealand A team. These two extra games could be played on a Sunday.
So the rep weekend would look something like this:
Friday: New Zealand versus Pacific Islands (Week 1, 2, 3).
Saturday: NSW versus QLD (Week 1, 2, 3).
Sunday: NSW A versus QLD A and New Zealand A versus Papua New Guinea (Week 1); NSW A versus Papua New Guinea and QLD A versus New Zealand A (Week 2); NSW A versus New Zealand A and QLD A versus Papua New Guinea (Week 3).
NSW A should always play QLD A on week one of the rep weekend, so that the fringe players can press their claims in the first team for the second State of Origin.
There are a number of advantages for the four-team round robin that I will not thoroughly go in to, but include:
– Chance for fringe players to play regular rep games.
– Clear pathway for NZ, NSW and QLD players into first teams.
– Ready replacements for NZ, NSW and QLD first teams.
– The culture of the teams introduced to players earlier and what is expected of them once they pull on the jersey, similar to the function of the QLD Emerging Origin Squad.
– Regular representative games for PNG, which will hopefully improve their quality.
– These games can be taken to regional centres to promote the game.
Benefits of moving all these rep games on the one weekend include:
– All rep players will be available for NRL club games.
– Longer recovery period for players, i.e players do not back up after a two-day rest.
– Potentially increasing crowds to SOO matches in NSW.
There are other advantages, but also disadvantages of all these rep games being played on three separate weekends. However, with the right people in charge and behind the idea (I should tweet it to Rusty), I believe that this could work.
Lastly, I would also scrap the ANZAC test and City/County games. Possibly move the Test to after the three rep weekends, but let’s save that for another article.
What are your thoughts? Can these rep games on the weekend work?
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