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The rise of Jarryd Hayne as a player was justly reinforced this week by recognising the talented youngster as the Dally M Medallist for 2009.
This is a remarkable achievement for a player who only twelve months ago was not considered amongst the finest seventeen rugby league players available to represent Australia.
While his previous misdemeanours have been well documented, the turn around in his life and football has been attributed towards his time playing for his paternal Fiji (it would perhaps be easier understanding Einstein’s theory of relativity than it is trying to comprehend the international eligibility rules in rugby league).
While this may make great reading for Jarryd’s biography or Wiki page, there are larger issues for the NRL/ARL to deal with.
The boom in participation numbers of rugby league players of Polynesian origin is not a new phenomena.
Rugby league, like AFL, is a code that embraces diversity and celebrates the achievements of their players based on merit and not race. The implications arising from this trend, especially for the higher profile Polynesian players, inevitably leads to the debate over representative loyalties.
This dilemma has been confronted by the likes of Benji Marshall, Sonny Bill Williams and Karmichael Hunt – all of whom were unfairly dragged into a tug-of-war of their services. Players gripped with this Socratic equation will need to confront their obligations to their land of birth and the land that has afforded them the opportunity to play elite football.
The swaying factor for Australia is generally the lure of playing State of Origin football.
As we know, the State of Origin arena is a spectacle experienced by a select few. The rhetoric used by past players about their experiences is unanimous.
The timeless cliché is that State of Origin is “the best football you will ever play”. In sporting terms, State of Origin is our Tour de France, our Wimbledon, our Americas Cup.
Series wins are savoured alongside Premiership rings. Friends are made and legends are born in this area.
State of Origin football, perhaps unrightfully so, sits above anything that international football currently offers. Given this, it would seem almost cruel to deny a player the opportunity to play State of Origin football for the State that they have grown up in.
A player is generally considered ready for State of Origin when your hear the other cliché used: “if you are good enough, you are old enough”. Yet, if you are good enough and you have played all your rugby league in Queensland or New South Wales, you also qualify for New Zealand: we immediately put a line through your name?
The debate has been held before and the argument against expanding the eligibility rules for State of Origin was that non-Australians would not have the same passion as the Australian do.
Yet in this years’ series, it was a winger who played for Fiji and grew up in Campbelltown that showed the most passion playing for the Blues. Such was the case when Adrian Lam, Tonie Carroll and Brad Thorn played for Queensland.
Why then is there such reservation for allowing players to play for Queensland/New South Wales and play for a country other than Australia? Surely we are insecure about our playing depth in Australia.
It is often said that you could pick three Australian sides and have a more competitive series than a series against New Zealand and England.
While some may argue that New Zealand being world champions proves international rugby league is alive, one only need to look at the over record between these ‘top two’ countries to understand that it was a case of Australia losing as opposed to New Zealand winning the World Cup.
Australia alone cannot solve this problem.
However, it can dramatically improve the competitiveness of international rugby league by making such concessions to their State of Origin eligibly rules.
It would be tremendous to watch Michael Jennings play for Tonga and Roy Asotasi and Frank Pritchard playing for New South Wales.
Likewise, Karmichael and Timana Tahu playing for New Zealand would be a great sight.
Why not have the best player playing both international and state rugby league? The gains for the game would surely outweigh any costs.
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