Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy has urged the NRL to follow the lead of rugby’s governing body SANZAR and put the competition on hold to allow State of Origin to be played over three successive weekends.
The recent tour of the British and Irish Lions prompted the suspension of the Super Rugby competition to allow the three Test matches against the Wallabies to be played.
Bellamy wants the same thing to happen in the NRL after his side – shorn of Origin stars Cooper Cronk, Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Ryan Hoffman – were smashed 39-0 by Canterbury on Sunday.
The biggest question on everyone’s lips at ANZ Stadium was why a repeat of last year’s grand final was being played in the middle of Origin in front of a crowd of less than 17,000.
Bellamy conceded he is more vocal about the situation because his side lose so many players during Origin, but said he hoped the ARL Commission will revisit the possibility of stand-alone games.
“Origin takes a lot out of your players everyone knows that and accepts that,” Bellamy said.
“It takes them a little while to get over the emotional (side of it). It’s a tough thing to come down for or get up again, depending on the result.
“I’ve found with our guys, the last couple of Origin series, it’s probably taken a little bit longer.
“Origin seems to be getting bigger and bigger and with that comes a bigger emotional leftover at the end.”
“I think we could learn a bit from rugby who cancelled their competition for a couple of week for the Lions tour.”
The premiership-winning coach refused to use the loss of his star players as an excuse for the loss but expressed surprise that the NRL had scheduled the game for this weekend.
“You’d have to ask the people who put the draw out,” he said.
“We always like to miss just the one game without our rep players but this year was different.
“I am disappointed and a touch embarrassed. We got hammered, we got what we deserved.
“It’s strange to have a grand final replay without Origin players.”
The result edged Des Hasler’s side back into the top eight as they leapfrogged the Gold Coast on points differential thanks to the comfortable win.
Melbourne remain in third spot but are now seven points adrift of leaders South Sydney who did not play this weekend.
On Saturday night, Penrith, wooden spoon favourites at the start of the year, consolidate their spot in the top eight with a hard-fought 17-10 win over struggling Parramatta.
It was the Eels’ seventh straight loss and a second successive wooden spoon is looking a certainty for Ricky Stuart’s side.
On Monday night, Manly get the opportunity to crank up the pressure on under-fire North Queensland coach Neil Henry in Townsville to complete a reduced round that kicked off with Cronulla beating Brisbane on Friday night.
Von Neumann
Roar Guru
i wrote out a season plan not to long ago. i suspended the comp for origin. you would do the same. we all would. its channel 9 who doesn't want to suspend anything. I think of it like this. Free weekend to other sports by way of having sub-par nrl rounds. Play origin - they will NEVER beat it. if you must to facilitate this -- set aside two(2) rounds each year where the fixtures are not set in stone. Have a game of NRL on during the origin weeks, of teams (not competing mostly in origin) and sub the left over fixture into another round later in the year or however. You could feasably promote one nrl game in a week - to stem the anticipation until origin for maybe 2 of those weeks. In future, I believe they should not play the third game unless needed. We need to bring this back to a proper sport. Plus what is wrong with an Origin in the day time. I mean, seriously. It could potentially be the greatest game of rugby league -ever- played.
I'mastormtrooper2
Guest
What's amazing as far as I'm concerned and probably something Bellamy also ponders, is that his team came into season 2013 from their 2012 Premiership and their wins in England, to lead the NRL for the first part of the season - They have remained in the top 3 regardless of the performance of the team without their full quota ... I'll be the first to say, something needs to be addressed, so that teams are not unfairly dubed and of course SOO players are not entitled to Dally M Award points whilst representing their State ... Then of course comes State of Origin I, II, III, as well as injuries, and teams lose direction - some stay afloat, some sink to the bottom, some are lucky enough to stay in contention ... Look at some clubs in comparison - 1st - Rabbitoh's - Inglis; 2nd - Roosters - Maloney, Pearce; 3rd - Storm - Smith, Slater, Cronk, Hoffman; 4th Manly - Cherry-Evans, Watmough; compared to 13th - Cowboys without Thurston, Scott, Tait, Tamou (getting beaten by Manly tonight) and 14th - Bronco's - Thaiday, Parker, Hodges. Bellamy has a point and I respect his opinion, but his team can hold their heads high - Their results speak louder than words ... Personally, I can't wait for Wednesday night, but more importantly I can't wait for the season to get back on track. GO QUEENSLAND ... GO THE MIGHTY STORM !!! PS:- Have to disagree on one thing Oikee ... The Bronco's v Sharks on Friday night was one hell of a game - One of the best I've watched this year.
Glenn Innis
Guest
'Super Rugby' can't even rate well enough to cut it on free to air tele in Australia, Most Australian sport fans only give a toss about Rugby at international level and even then interest among the mainstream is pretty marginal.My views on what League should do about rep football scheduling have nothing to do with what Rugby does. Rugby League and AFL are the main games in this country,union is largely insignificant, our "cold war" is with AFL, and this two month period of our club comp almost going into hibernation is a big problem.
Bondy
Guest
I think also what has to be remembered is the super rugby matches continue outside of Australia " I believe" whilst domestic super rugby stops there International comp and broadcasting doesn't. The point is the extension of the concept is prolonged it also doesn't become forthright in the mind of the occasionals where the Lions tour was always a game next week even for the occasionals, thats three origin games in 9 weeks almost one a month and its had a detrimental affect on club footy in some cases with crowds and overall availability of player for club commitments..
Glenn Innis
Guest
Origin is a mixed blessing,on the one hand it is like having an extra three grand finals, and it showcases the game at a level that club football can never match,it also generates a great deal of revenue, it's the trumpcard we have over AFL. On the downside it has a massive negative impact upon our club competition for a period of almost two months, origin steals almost all the oxygen from club football, which just kind of limps along until the series is over. This is a major problem because Rugby League like AFL and unlike Union is a club based sport,the NRL club comp is the games bread and butter. I can't understand why we can't play origin over a fortnight on three succesive week night, suspend club footbal fr this period and then get on with club football.At the end of the day what difference does it really make to the broadcasters, they will still have 24 rounds of NRL to show, there would be no difference in the amount of club football content.
Mato-Bateman
Guest
In 2001 they tried the stand-a-lone weekend Origin. I don't know why they didn't continue that.
doubledutch
Roar Pro
Tough one for the NRL, but I have said it for years being a neutral supporter and being from Melbourne that the SOO does just as much good for the game as it harms it. It's good to see each year that more and more league commentators are at least starting to echo that the current system does not work and that club football is losing out big time, which for a Melbournian just seems incomprehensible. One reason they probably won't go to stand alone weekends is because the ratings for SOO would drastically decrease. There is a huge perception that SOO is bigger than Ben Hur. Now don't get me wrong, SOO is big (in NSW and QLD anyway), but the reality is many programmes dish out pretty good ratings in the middle of winter on a Wednesday evening when there isn't anything else to do. It would be interesting if it was played on a Saturday afternoon by itself how it would fare. Saturday night would rate not so bad, but no where near as good as Wednesday. It would have to be a Sunday evening game to really rate the socks off and make it worth it for the networks, but then it's kind of like a waste of an entire weekend for everyone waiting for it to come on. Tough one indeed, one I don't have an answer for other than saying (maybe 20 years to early) that SOO in my opinion doesn't have a place in a national competition (if thats what the NRL) wants to become.
Ozzibear
Guest
If he game between the Dogs and the Storm isn't the best advertisement for stand alone weekend's for Rep football nothing is we (NRL) are slowly being left behind by other codes plain and simple we really need to overhaul the whole draw as well just my $0.02cents
Renegade
Guest
You mean Storm and Bulldogs i assum? What your stating is corerct though.....why would the grand final replay be held on the week of origin. One of the biggest scheduling blunders of all time....seriously outrageous. There should be a 3 week break for origin where we can play a challenge cup style knockout comp....something has gotta give.
alfie
Guest
The broncos have put up with this for years why would you give teams such as the warriors 2 byes durring the origin period and have the Grand finalest from last year storm and dragons play each other with understrength line ups. Management of the NRL as Oikee keeps saying is amature. Pay the $ for the best administrators that can be can be found
oikee
Guest
The Storm looked alot like the Broncos , one out footy, no spark no creativity, just park footy. This code needs to do something fast about the Origin period. Club footy is now shown to be rubbissh without your star players. The Cows cant win with their stars. I am afraid the NRL has not only got the roster for this year terribly wrong, they have also allowed Origin to rot on the vine and been caught out big time not creating. Even a blindman could have seen that soccer and union were going to have the weekends all to themselves and easily win any battle because they are played on the weekend, not a weeknight too far away. We need to introduce a 3 weekend period of rep footy. This code has again failed to grow, it has gone backwards. The refs are duds, as Gus said, no penalty because a couple of ex=players, or backpackers as i call them, in the box, still making the sme black and white errors. Roster this year, worst ever, done by a mob who have little idea about the game. Crowds, awful, player behavour terrible, expansion, terrible, origin over 2 months or 9 and a half weeks, woeful, promotion, horrible, do we have any decent promotion, i thought we sold ourselves to being promoted, part of the package, hopeless. It just goes from one mistake to the next, like a neverending list of bad decisions.