I don’t really care that the Rabbitohs will miss Greg Inglis for a few rounds a year when he plays representative games.
Nor do I care if Manly misses Anthony Watmough or the Broncos miss their usual crop of rep players.
There is a school of thought in the league community that Origin games should be played as a standalone feature to try and avoid player fatigue not to mention club footy fielding all the game’s stars.
But are the teams really disadvantaged that much?
Inglis, for instance, can be counted on to miss at least three games a year through Origin plus another one if he pulls up with an injury from the ANZAC Test match.
Many would say the Rabbitohs will suffer as a result because they can’t use Inglis and any other rep players during those weeks and another team such as the Warriors, who currently aren’t fielding any Origin stars, will have a competitive advantage.
Yes, for those weeks teams such as the Broncos and Storm in particular can struggle to match their opponents.
But three of possibly four rounds a year is it.
Take the Storm as an example for too many years (from a Blues perspective anyway) Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and more recently Cooper Cronk have missed three games a year due to Origin.
Since the Maroons started their winning streak back in 2006 Melbourne has finished outside the top four once, in 2010 when the salary cap story broke and they were stripped of all their competition points.
If you are one of those who think their seasons while they were cheating the cap don’t count then look at 2011 where they won the minor premiership, only to lose the game before the grand final, and 2012 where they finished second on the ladder and won the competition.
In 2010 the Dragons were minor premiers and went on to win the premiership.
That year they fielded seven players overall in Origin matches and six in Game 1.
Did the Dragons’ season suffer as a result of those players not being there for a few games?
The answer is, in my opinion at least, no.
No doubt those weeks where the Dragons fielded a lot of rep players they suffered but as the old saying goes the team is only as strong as the weakest link.
Implicit in the argument that teams are disadvantaged because they lose their Origin stars for the week is the assumption that because a team is above another on the ladder they automatically deserve the win.
Let me counter that by posing this question.
If the current leaders of the competition, the Rabbitohs, lost Inglis, John Sutton and Adam Reynolds to injury, should they deserve to beat the team currently in last place, Parramatta?
Of course not, if Parramatta can field a stronger team to the Rabbitohs and then beat them, the Eels deserve the win.
The Rabbitohs proved that it is possible to win without their Origin stars this year winning both their games without their rep players (though to be fair, one was against Parramatta).
Despite losing some of their strongest players the Rabbitohs still managed to win games and that is the reason why they are four points clear of the Roosters on the ladder.
As for player fatigue swapping around the major bye rounds could help solve the issue of player fatigue.
Currently the major bye round, where eight of sixteen teams get a week off, comes in the same week where the Origin players sit out their club games to train for Origin.
Those players then come back and play a game of club footy (with two to four teams getting a bye), some just two nights after they have played some of the toughest football they will ever play.
Why not place the major bye round after the Origin game and then play the remaining four games on Sunday and Monday.
Clubs are without their stars the week before Origin anyway because they are in camp so why not move the major bye round after Origin and give most of the players a rest.
Players who don’t get a week off still have Thursday, Friday and Saturday to recover and even get in a training session with their team.
The only people who would really lose out are Channel 9 who broadcast the Friday night games. They certainly deserve a say in the matter.
The Friday night game could be moved to Sunday so we get a double header of footy.
Channel 9 only broadcast two games the week after Origin anyway because there will only be one Friday night game due to the smaller round.
Apart from helping fatigue these changes would mean a player who pulls up sore from Origin can potentially miss one, not two games of club footy.
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