State of Origin robbing Storm of their players

TC That theory is watered down by two examples,the players in the Storm want to play origin,and Bellamy is pushing for Hoffman to be selected in the NSW side. Iinteresting Melbourne beat Manly without Slater,a few days after Origin. Also playing Origin raises the[profile of the players involved.very person who is a member of a club,is aware Origin is part of the season,accepts it in the main,knowing full well their top players can get injured in a club games,as have many star players in the past and present.The Storm is not the only club afected by players with Origin duty. cronulla beat teh warriors withourt an injured Gallen ,an with Carney backing up,and no Warriors players involved. Yes I am sure the clubs are going to say,we dont want origin,nor the huge sums it brings to the gam(e $30m pa which goes toward their grant),nor do we want our players earning $20,000 plus for each match.Nor ddo we want to see the code promoted Oz wide and elsewhere.LOL. Your view is out of kilter with the code and players thinking. Just because AFL didn't want it,does not automatically follow rugby league doesn't want it.SOO rates it's whatsis off continually,whereas the AFL version seemed to wither due to lack of interest.The NRL clubs have had teh opportunity for decades to ask for teh concept to be knocked on its head,they haven't.End of story.

Origin Players seem to be 'dropping like nine pins' this weekend. Inglis, Bird, Stewart, next game could see a few new faces on both sides. .... Are these players getting injured because they are playing 'fatigued, guess we will never really know. Bronco's stand their players down, so they obviously think it is unreasonable to ask the players to 'front up ' twice in 4 days . .What price two points??.

micka - again, twisted thinking. The scenario you point out is a very small price to pay for RL having Origin as the greatest rivalry in Australian sport. For every disheartened 'fan' there's a potential one up for grabs through the increased exposure for RL from SOO (300k+ Victorians watching e.g.). From the outside the underdogs will have the neutral support, that's why in AFL SOO anyone playing Victoria had the attention (if any) of the northern states.

I give up, which part of "No one in Queensland or NSW wanted them, is hard to understand?. They were raw kids and have been well tutored by Craig Bellamy, (Who we did poach from Brisbane, but not after he had been poached from Raiders!), this poaching is rife in our game..

"Trust me when I say, athletic talent like Billy Slater will most likely not be playing in the NRL if teams like the Storm do not grow and help build the NRL. You are ignorant to this fact believing otherwise, so do not think of it as poaching of your talent, more an investment in your future." Only the Melbourne Storm are able to identify talented juniors like Billy Slater? Is that what you're saying? Players like Billy Slater were nurtured in junior football leagues that were financed and operated by the QRL. The Storm had nothing to do with Billy Slater choosing rugby league when he was a kid. The skills he learnt as a kid were taught to him by officials who were linked with the QRL. If the Storm hadn't have picked him up then he would have gone on to play in the Queensland Cup and earned a spot with the Broncos or Cowboys. "Now considering he will most likely be remembered as the best full back this game has ever seen, to be remembered as one of the absolute greats, you need that premiership by your name" Ha! So a player cannot be great unless he was part of a club that won a premiership? Do you know stupid that sounds? Tim Brasher never won a premiership, but many people consider him to be one of the best fullbacks of the 90s. Sean Long has never been part of an England Lions team that has defeated Australia, but many consider him to be one of the all-time greats, even though he's still young. You'll find people rate him far higher than Paul Wellens, even though Mr Welliens was part of a few Great Britain Lions teams that defeated the Kangaroos, including the one that thrashed the Kangaroos 23-12 in Sydney in 2006. Thurston has never won a World Cup, but it won't stop him from being remembered as one of the best halfbacks/five-eighthes to ever play for Australia. Stacey Jones is probably the greatest Kiwis halfback of all time. He never won a premiership or World Cup.

I'd be highly surprised if News Ltd. haven't used their money to buy the best juniors. If they have then that's poaching. They Storm offer nothing to grassroots football in Queensland and NSW, but they take plenty of the juniors each year.

It looks as though Queensland and NSW aren't the only ones concerned with outsiders poaching their talent.. check out the link from the Brisbane Times, http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/kiwis-hit-out-at-origin-coaches-as-kasiano-nears-maroons-switch-20120617-20ida.html

I have no problem with Queensland born players representing their state at SOO level, as Bellamy said to the AFL panel, "They come back better players for the experience". I am a Storm fan and also love to see our kids play for their state, I also follow Queensland in the SOO and want them to win. -- The SOO format is brilliant as it is, whether it should be played in the middle of the season is another question. Slater is not the first player to be injured in a rep game, some clubs have lost their stars for a full season,. That is the nature of the beast. -- I would not like to see Origin destroyed because of fear of losing a player, someone always 'steps up' to cover them. we have been lucky, Slater gets a rest and will come back fitter than ever at the end of the season when most are feeling the strain. -- can Queensland cover him, No worries. We have the next best two in the league in Inglis and Bowen. (note : did you notice I said WE!'. I can understand Queenslandah feeling a bit upset because his club did not see the potential in Billy , Cam , Falou, Cronk etc:etc.. I too would feel we had missed the boat, But the allegations of 'poaching are a bit off centre.. given that all four were not wanted by either of the Queensland clubs!.

The SOO keeps the Brisabne Broncos from dominating the NRL as they could supply a number of Qld reps - in the past at least. THe SOO was always going to cause this problem as well as the players backing up getting injured in the game following because of workload perhaps (Bird yesterday). The TV networks will never give it up and it will alaways be midweek but certainly interest in the club rounds drops off. The best Pay Tv game over the weekend was Penrith with 159K although the Storm will beat this tonight..

I think you are all getting into Cattery because of his usual AFL hard line. BUT as a fellow victorian AFL supporter with a burgeoning interest in NRL I can also say that Origin is an exhibition game to me. NSW and QLD supporters see it as the pinnacle because they are involved. SOO should never be dropped but I think Leaguies would have to acknowledge that if you are trying to break into the VIC market SOO is going to have little buy in other than seeing some real good players go round together. I like seeing the Storm get up but I couldn't give two stools about Maroon Vs Blues. Ultimately as a potential attendee and member (i.e. a target demographic for growth of the game) I only have a vested interest in Club games and international tests. Another way for leaguies to look at it was who did you go for in the SA vs WA SOO in the AFL? Irrelevant? Exactly

Obviously the players desire for SOO drives thier participation but it is a good point. The interesting aside I think is the recent discussion on player payment for SOO participation. My understanding is this is $10K / game at the moment but there is talk of bringing it up to $50K to make it more proportionate to the revenue generated to the game from SOO. My question would be given the clubs are the players primary employer (and most these guys are on $300K plus), wouldnt it be them in the position to ask for some of any additional money swung the players way in compensation for them not being able to play, having limited preperation for games etc let alone being injured during SOO. If you added up the club costs incurred because of SOO it would be quite substantial (eg additional match payments for fringe players filling in for SOO players, players required to travel to games to cover origin players etc) and in line with the above views, I feel they have a strong case.

Between missing players in SOO, the placing of byes and an uneven playing schedule (i.e. playing some teams but not all teams twice), the NRL is fairer to some teams than others. SOO should be on stand alone weekends, which would go a long way to sorting out the missing players and bye problems. Now how to sort out the extra 3 weeks in an already crowded schedule? I might not be the first person to say this, and it is unlikely to ever happen due to TV rights etc... But why not decrease the season length to play every team once. A team would play 7 home and 8 away, or vice versa, then flip the games the schedule the next year, so who you played at home you then play away. this would be a 15 week season, plus 3 weekends for SOO / rep footy, plus a few extra weeks to incorporate byes. the season would be about 20-22 weeks long (with teams having 1 bye each), which would then go onto finals. End of season tests could then be played. With the extra time, there could also be a knockout comp on selected weekends, a bit like the FA cup. Could be a bit ambitious but just a thought.

What is going to happen 'in a few years' to make it any better then it is now?it is good, but a must watch international sporting event is a bit of an overstatement

Sorry mate, if you wrote down your actual thoughts as you meant them to sound, maybe dumbos like me wouldn't ,misread them. There are only so many positions in NRL teams to absorb the young talent that NSW and Queensland are nurturing, If Melbourne (Now), Perth and Adelaide (Later) do not pick up some of these kids then the money wasted on their 'education' is lost to the NRL. I am sure that Melboune are investing money into junior development, but until this starts showing results they will always have to go to the heartlands for their kids. AND just for the record I am not as smart as YOU think I am....

Wow I wasn't aware the nrl had been destroyed on Wednesday night when we weren't looking

C, you simply don't know if it is important because AFL doesn't have it. Until you have it how can you possibly know? Have you ever represented your state or country at anything? If you have tell me how you feel about it? I represented NSW as a junior and I can tell you it mattered to me. And when Greg Pierce became the first to represent Australia from my junior RL club they put his picture up on the wall of the change sheds. Then when he captained Australia my 12 year old teammates and I could see that you could go from that shed by the creek to captaining your country. To say that these things don't matter or mean anything is just ridiculous.

There's no point diluting origin by adding extra states to it. Even as a side origin, or combined competition. There's something special between the states of QLD and NSW that will never be replicated with any other states. Consider cricket or rugby, the rivalry between QLD and NSW is there of course, and I dare say its fierce as well, but I don't remember the newspapers going nuts about every little thing for 3 weeks before the bulls play the blues in the sheffield shield. The concept is Rugby League, QLD v NSW and should never be touched or tampered with. It began that way, and if has to, should die that way. I mentioned it a while ago now, but I think at the end of the year there should be a massive Australia state based / Pacific Island knock-out level based competition. AUS states/territories, and some islands enter at a level 1 - VIC/WA/SA/TAS/ACT/NT and say FIJI/TONGA/SAMOA/SALMON ISLANDS, ETC. Numbers of course need to be defined, but they play and are either knocked-out or progress, until there are four. The remaining four teams play QLD, NSW, NZ, PNG. Yes, there will be floggings, but all in the name of progress. The remaining four teams should be QLD, NSW, NZ, PNG. This will give whinging kiwis finally a chance to match it with QLD or NSW, and assist in the progression of PNG rugby league, and ultimately be designed that if they win, QLD and NSW will meet in the final, providing a fourth QLD/NSW match for the year, and chance for more revenue, and revenge, and most importantly this comp assists in developing the sport of Rugby league. Of course, stats will not involve origin stats or vice versa. Origin remains mid year, untouched, as it always should.

Is just part of all REAL sports. Clubs probably don't like it, but I'm pretty sure they accepted it like, 100 years ago... I'm also pretty sure they actually hold it as an honour. I doubt that the Bronco's hate the fact that Locky has such an impressive rep record, because it surely has nothing to with him becoming a legend, getting people to the games and always being associated with the club. Of course we could go the way of America, have no representative level and let the clubs (or franchises) dictate the game.

Yeah fellas, having the greatest rivalry in Australian sport is a bad thing for RL.

SOO is the best thing RL has going for it in Australia. You're either over thinking it or have an ulterior objective (hello AFL fans) if you think it should be punted. These things are a small price to pay for RL effectively having 4 Grand Finals in Australia.