Representative football scheduling hurts the NRL competition
Roar Rookie By rselvage7, 29 Jun 2012 rselvage7 is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- NRL, paul gallen, Rugby League, Sam Thaiday, State Of Origin, Todd Carney
Amidst the annual ‘silly season’, the debate once more ignites as to whether the NRL’s show piece event, State of Origin, deserves a stand alone weekend.
The three-part annual fixture boasts revenue figures in excess of $34M, however the absence of the top-flight players inevitably detracts from the quality of club matches.
In light of the forthcoming television rights deal, the NRL must be genuinely weighing up the pros and cons of the current fixture system. Friday night’s ‘should be blockbuster’ of Brisbane (3rd) versus Cronulla (4th) will be without nine representative players; including the likes of Thaiday, Parker, Carney and Gallen.
The Suncorp crowd may still exceed 30,000 parochial supporters, however with the inclusion of the aforementioned players, the game could potentially have been a 50,000+ supporter sell out.
Queensland Maroons’ halfback Johnathan Thurston told the Courier Mail “it would be great to have a stand alone origin … The toll that it takes on your body both physically and mentally and for players to back up two days later; where is the player welfare?”
Earlier in the season the NRL effectively managed the ANZAC Test and City versus Country fixtures, providing all 16 clubs with a week off to ensure player recovery.
The NRL could further adapt such methods and apply them to the six week Origin period, allowing all state players to play for their respective clubs. In turn, this would maintain the quality of club football as well as player fitness heading into the latter part of the 26 round season, ahead of finals fixtures.
It is clear that something must be done.
The game receives so much from the players who throw their bodies on the line in the high profile fixtures. These players deserve some consideration when it comes to match planning.
The player, as well as the clubs and fans, make the game what it is. They should be entitled to see the best players on the field in the season’s most compelling mid-season matches.
- Explore:
- NRL, paul gallen, Rugby League, Sam Thaiday, State Of Origin, Todd Carney
June 29th 2012 @ 4:04am
Rabby said | June 29th 2012 @ 4:04am | Report comment
I could not agree more. I love Origin but hate what it does to our national competition. Six whole weeks ruined simply because we cannot properly scedule this event. How are we going to cope with two extra teams as well. This has to become a high priority for the commission.
June 29th 2012 @ 1:14pm
JamesP said | June 29th 2012 @ 1:14pm | Report comment
“I love Origin but hate what it does to our national competition”
And that is one of the main reasons why AFL SoO eventually died its death.
As the old saying goes, “you can’t have your cake and it eat it too”.
I know, I know…what’s the use of having cake if you cant eat it…..
June 29th 2012 @ 4:59am
Morotti said | June 29th 2012 @ 4:59am | Report comment
I think all fans agree it should be on a stand alone weekend. I would like to see more than one game on that weekend though. Clearning a whole weekend for 80 mins of football doesn’t make sense. If they could get some other competitive fixtures (e.g. NZ state of origin concept, Australian Aborigines vs NZ Maoris, even City vs Country, pacific island nations playing internationals?) then I would like to see it happen.
June 29th 2012 @ 8:29am
turbodewd said | June 29th 2012 @ 8:29am | Report comment
Morotti,
it makes complete sense to me. Fans will be dying for the footy the following week. AND note that after the dedicated ANZAC test weekend several days later the Easts v St.Geo game was a sellout at the SFS. That there is proof that dedicated weekends work.
SOO kills NswRL crowds, put SOO on sunday night when everyone is home, it will be a cracker!
June 29th 2012 @ 9:49am
DAYER said | June 29th 2012 @ 9:49am | Report comment
No … Not Sunday, make it Friday or Saturday night. gives most of us fans to celebrate the win or “loss” after the game so not worry about work next day.
June 29th 2012 @ 10:10am
turbodewd said | June 29th 2012 @ 10:10am | Report comment
Fair point. Saturday night it is!
July 1st 2012 @ 2:24am
Queensland's Game Is Rugby League said | July 1st 2012 @ 2:24am | Report comment
TV networks won’t want Origin on Saturday nights because people go to parties and restaurants. It would be played on the Sunday.
It would be good if a 3 match series between Queensland Residents and NSW Residents was played on the same weekend as origin. The game could be played on a Saturday night.
I’d like to see a 3 match New Zealand vs England series played simultaneously to the Origin. A 3 match series could be played between Wales and France. Ireland could battle Scotland. PNG could play against Fiji. Tonga could play against Samoa. That’s plenty of football for the stand-alone origin weekend.
June 29th 2012 @ 9:54pm
Morotti said | June 29th 2012 @ 9:54pm | Report comment
Don’t forget that was the annual ANZAC day game. That regularly pulls 30k plus each year and has grown every year for the past few years.
Hard core fans would obviously be dying for more but the casual fan might turn on another sport. And if they do that enough then they may stop watching RL altogether.
I just like the idea of a representative weekend and having lots of different representative games. Play them all over Australia and get some decent crowds and exposure.
June 29th 2012 @ 8:16am
Ask said | June 29th 2012 @ 8:16am | Report comment
I wonder whether they would be better off just having a three week window mid season where all the origins are played. Last round before finishes on a Sunday. Teams go into camp Monday, then on the following three consecutive Saturdays the Origin’s are played. To ensure it’s not a blackout of rugby league you could have NSW City v Country (made up of those just outside selection for NSW), reintroduce QLD City vs Country, NSW residents vs Qld residents ( made up of Qld Cup and Nsw Cup players), NYC Origin and NZ Origin, all played across the three weekend’s Friday and Sundays and played at multiple different regional grounds (except NZ Origin of course) to keep the exposure for the game. No other byes in the NRL season except those three weeks. I think having the teams together for three continuous weeks you get better continuity of teams and a real chance for the teams to gel thus increasing the spectacle without reducing the standard of NRL, where at present you probably see a better standard in QLD Cup for those rounds preceeding an Origin.
June 29th 2012 @ 9:56pm
Morotti said | June 29th 2012 @ 9:56pm | Report comment
Love this idea. Not sure about a blackout three weeks of it but still love the idea of a representative weekend. Would only add trying to get some pacific island nations playing some games also.
June 29th 2012 @ 8:39am
The Barry said | June 29th 2012 @ 8:39am | Report comment
There’s no immediate answer to this one.
No doubt that it damages the club scene as from teams going into camp from game 1 to game 3 finishing it’s about 10 weeks all up which is about 40% of the season impacted by 3 games.
I don’t think we can carry three stand alone weekends though – that will be just as disruptive as the current set up – maybe one of the games could be stand alones. That will reduce the load on the players and the impact on the NRL without leaving a massive gap in the middle of the season.
If we do have stand alone weekends the games suggested by Ask and Morotti above will be great fillers…probably logistically next to impossible but what about a kiwis v england test as well.
I wouldn’t like to see Origin all wrapped up in three weeks either.
The last thing – I’m not sure about anyone else but I absolutely love Origin as a mid-week fixture. The build up as you go about your working day and race home to get fied up for the game is sensational.
So maybe Game 1 and Game 3 mid-week as they are now with Game 2 being a stand alone ‘festival of the boot’ with a weekend of ‘lower tier’ rep games capped by Origin on Sunday night.
June 29th 2012 @ 9:10am
turbodewd said | June 29th 2012 @ 9:10am | Report comment
The Barry,
midweek Origin isnt family friendly. Also, there have been some Sydney Origins which havent sold out. Midweek is stupid if you ask me. If its on saturday or sunday then people from outside Sydney are more likely to be able to make it. SOO on a weekend will then ALWAYS be a sellout.
SOO should be over in 5 weeks. SOO1, NRL, SOO2, NRL, SOO3, NRL-back to normal
or 7 weeks: SOO1, NRL, NRL, SOO2, NRL, NRL, SOO3
June 29th 2012 @ 1:07pm
Bring Back the Bears said | June 29th 2012 @ 1:07pm | Report comment
I disagree, I like the idea of having a three week representative gap in the middle of the season and remove the bye rounds. That would also mean players aren’t missing club games for origin, and clubs can’t complain about scheduling, we could also bring in a NZ origin and also bring in the Pacific cup to play at the same time. This would definitely help prevent NZ and Pac islander players from playing origin and would strengthen the international game by giving other nations rep experience. My ideal season would run as follows:
NRL – wk 1-5
Anzac Test and City Country – wk 6
NRL – wk 7 – 12
SOO, NZ, Pac Cup – wk 13-15
NRL – wk 16-21
All stars vs Indigenous all stars
NRL – wk 21-26
Finals
June 29th 2012 @ 10:00pm
Morotti said | June 29th 2012 @ 10:00pm | Report comment
Have you ever been to an Origin at ANZ? Because I have to get back to Cronulla afterwards and if I am there before midnight I am lucky. Once I waited an hour and moved less than 5 kilometres. That doesn’t stop me from going but if I had children there is no way I would take them there.
June 30th 2012 @ 9:57am
Meesta Cool said | June 30th 2012 @ 9:57am | Report comment
Like this idea Turbo.. it will give non rep players that ‘break’ n mid season and help some ‘niggle injuries to players. Another positive is, Rep players will not be asked to play 3 games in ten days.
I also like the fact that the better teams in the comp do not lose valuable point to the lesser performing ones. — SOO definitely affects the final standings on the ladder. sometimes to the detriment of a team that should have made the ‘eight’.. Once again the Broncs have to pick themselves up again after losing a few games in this period.
Some people will disagree with this, saying “It evens the comp p a bit”, my thoughts are that it actually weakens the final top eight.
June 29th 2012 @ 9:46am
DAYER said | June 29th 2012 @ 9:46am | Report comment
Agree 100%. It is a GREAT BIG JOKE to see clubs miss their players on SOO week.
ARLC has already allocated SOO games to be played on Wednesday nights in 2013, hopefully thhey change their minds and make them standalone nxt year.
June 29th 2012 @ 10:39am
turbodewd said | June 29th 2012 @ 10:39am | Report comment
I think the ARLC are scared the ratings will drop if it moves to saturday. Well they need to move it to find out. They may be worried that theyd lose the big chunk of casual viewers who may otherwise do something on a saturday night.
SOO is so big it has its own gravity, move it to saturday night and the viewers will follow.
June 29th 2012 @ 10:52am
npollard said | June 29th 2012 @ 10:52am | Report comment
This issue comes to the fore during SOO every year. As we all know, NRL governance prior to the ARLC had split ownership so any decisive leadership was almost impossible. Hopefully this will start to change now the ARLC is controlling things.
Early in 2011 I did a lot of work in creating a proposal for an alternative season draw. Apart from the heavy load on players during SOO period and the impact on clubs when their best players are unavailable, there is the problem of the draw being unequal. Teams play every other team once then some teams twice and for some reason a lot of teams play each other for the second time within the first 10 rounds of the season!
It is also fair to assume that at some point there will be an expansion of teams, probably to 18 much like the AFL. All the problems with the draw will only get worse with expansion so there is a lack of scalability with the current draw as well.
My proposal introduces a number of measures including a weekend right in the middle of the NRL season that is set aside as SOO carnival for the second SOO match. Structured like Grand Final day it would be a celebration weekend for RL with NSW V QLD for Under20s, state cup, Police comp, Tertiary league and an emerging states final for other states of Australia.
It is impossible to design a perfect system and the NRL is unique because it has club, state and International fixtures so whatever you do will be full of compromised solutions.
I actually put together a season draw for 2013 not just some conceptual ideas. There are 2 conferences of 9 teams to show that it will handle expansion etc.
It is comprehensive. I am happy to send it to any interested person. Just flick me an email on: neil@anahata.com.au
June 29th 2012 @ 10:58am
turbodewd said | June 29th 2012 @ 10:58am | Report comment
Neil, just post your proposal here u sausage!
I think conferences can work in the NRL. It sets up great rivalries, however I dont subscribe to the Super Bowl style final. The best 2 teams must feature in the GF, no matter what conference theyre in.
People need to get past the idea of playing each other twice in a season. That doesnt guarantee fairness but it guarantees fatigue!
June 29th 2012 @ 11:22am
npollard said | June 29th 2012 @ 11:22am | Report comment
Turbodewd, it’s a 39 page document. As I said it is comprehensive and also covers some other issues not mentioned in my comment. I don’t mind sending it to anyone who is interested.
June 29th 2012 @ 11:29am
turbodewd said | June 29th 2012 @ 11:29am | Report comment
Before one of the SOOs should be a RL Skills Challenge for prize money. In the NBA u have the dunk contest. We should have goal kicing contest, 40-20 contest, long passing contest, fastest man in league contest (a 100m and a 20m), strongest man in league and a fittest man in league contest.
June 29th 2012 @ 11:46am
Tru Blu said | June 29th 2012 @ 11:46am | Report comment
The ARLC and whoever the decision makers are need to grow a pair and do their job!