- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
I can’t wait for this weekend’s rugby league. That’s because, for the first time in three months, the focus will actually be on the week-in, week-out NRL competition (you know, the one with the grand final at the end?).
You could be forgiven for forgetting.
I get sick of State of Origin in about mid-May.
That’s about when the speculation over who is and isn’t going to get picked is at its most feverish and least sufferable.
Every game from mid-April to the end of May is viewed by the media as an Origin selection trial, rather than a game between two clubs for competition points.
When Jarryd Hayne goes down injured, the talk is all about how that’s not going to be good for the Blues. Never mind Parramatta, the side that actually pays his wages, who are without their main man for two months.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy State of Origin games themselves.
You get most of the best players in the comp on the field at once belting the tripe out of each other, terrific.
What I can’t cop is the circus that goes with it.
The endless speculation, the frenzied media hype, and the marketing-driven stirring of the New South Wales/Queensland rivalry.
Can I just say I don’t get the whole New South Wales/Queensland thing?
As much as newspapers and beer companies try to tell me that I hate Queensland and Queenslanders, I’m fairly confident that I don’t.
Origin is a good game, but I find it hard to get wound up about who wins. For me it’s just a good watch.
I think it has been worse since Roy and HG’s Origin calls went on hiatus.
All the hype and palaver used to be so much more bearable because Roy and HG were there to subvert it all, and point out how silly it all was.
Their satire provided a balance which allowed one to laugh at the circus. Now the circus is all we have.
But it’s not just the Origin frenzy which gets under my skin.
There’s also the way it carves up the competition. Origin season means fragmented teams and fragmented rounds. Four-game weekends with games between teams which are not even in the same postcode as full strength.
Think the Roosters and the Bulldogs a few Friday nights ago. That should have been a blockbuster, but instead it was a watered down procession.
Yet the brains-trust at the NRL, who serve up these insipid offerings during Origin season, then publicly brood over declining crowd figures.
I’m amazed the fans put up with it, but I’m even more amazed the clubs put up with it.
As I said above, they pay the wages, and yet their very best players are repeatedly unavailable or forced to back up over the course of the season, depending on the vagaries of the draw.
It effects seasons. If, say, Cronulla miss the finals because they had to play the Warriors before an Origin week, that will be totally unfair. The clubs needs to stand up for themselves and hold on to their assets.
The effect of all of this is that, throughout June and July, the competition becomes an afterthought.
It is now at the stage that commentators on some matches choose to add to the incessant Origin chatter rather than discuss the game at hand.
The NRL needs to sort it out. Stand-alone Origins are a must.
They also need to stop these ridiculous four-game weekends. If Origin was just the three games of footy it would be sensational.
As it is, I’m over it, and very glad to see the NRL back to full-strength.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.