- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The underdog New Zealanders almost caused one of the great upsets on Friday night, Samoa and Fiji was the rugged game of footy we all knew it would be, while the annual City-Country contest repaid the faithful who braved a cold Dubbo afternoon to see a thrilling 26-all draw.
Don’t forget the New South Wales under-20s team who claimed a third consecutive victory over their Queensland rivals at Sportingbet Stadium, or the ladies who took the field at Allianz Stadium for an historic All Stars encounter.
But was it enough for the fans who watch eight quality games over most weekends of the NRL season?
You have to say no. The representative weekend has a place in a long rugby league season, but some tweaking is in order to get the most out of the weekend to ensure fans still get their serving of the greatest game of all.
The first thing we need to do is scrap the Australia-New Zealand Test and move the game to October, allowing players the chance to earn selection through State of Origin and club football. The Australian side being selected before Origin defies logic.
We could then schedule Origin over three straight weekends, giving NRL clubs a mid-season break which would also allow for a free-agency window.
This all still leaves plenty of space for other representative games.
If the Super League was willing, a Great Britain side could come across and play New Zealand on each of the Friday nights of Origin, giving us a legitimate mid-season Test series. There is your Friday timeslot all locked up.
City and Country could face off on the first Saturday afternoon at the family-friendly time of 3pm, followed in week two by the Queensland equivalent. A side can be picked from those two games to play a France or Italy in week three.
Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Papua New Guinea could play a three-week Pacific Four Nations tournament, which would give us six games through the representative period.
Sunday afternoon’s Origin curtain raiser in week one would see the NSW under-20s facing Queensland, followed in week two by the increasingly popular women’s version before the best of the NSW Cup and Queensland Cup face off in week three.
Here are some possible teams from the second-tier competitions.
NSW Cup
Adam Quinlan, Cheyse Blair, Ryan Morgan, Dane Nielsen, David Williams, Luke Kelly, Sam Williams, Mark O’Meley, Matt McIlwrick, Tom Learoyd-Lahrs, Corey Paterson, James Hasson, Pat O’Hanlon. Bench: Shannon Boyd, Sione Lousi, Jack Buchanan, Matt Hilder.
Queensland Cup
Javarn White, Kyle Feldt, Stewart Mills, Jordan Kahu, Kalifa Faifai Loa, Cody Walker, Robert Lui, Mark Ioane, Jake Granville, David Hala, Ethan Lowe, Brendon Gibb, David Stagg. Bench: Matt Keating, Tim Natusch, Ricky Thorby, Todd Lowrie.
And on top of it all is State of Origin, the showpiece event that goes from strength to strength.
Representative weekends are a great idea, but we’ve got it backwards. Australia versus New Zealand on a Friday night isn’t enough to carry the concept alone, and needs more back-up than a Pacific Test match and a City-Country fixture on the Sunday.
If we’re going to do the representative weekends then we need to go all-in and really give it a chance.
POSSIBLE SCHEDULE
WEEK ONE
Friday
New Zealand v Great Britain (Auckland)
Saturday
City v Country (Country NSW)
Papua New Guinea v Fiji (Sportingbet Stadium – Double Header)
Samoa v Tonga (Sportingbet Stadium – Double Header)
Sunday
Under-20s State of Origin
State of Origin 1
WEEK TWO
Friday
New Zealand v Great Britain (Wellington)
Saturday
City v Country (Country Queensland)
Samoa v Papua New Guinea (AAMI Park – Double Header)
Tonga v Fiji (AAMI Park – Double Header)
Sunday
Women’s State of Origin
State of Origin 2
WEEK THREE
Friday
New Zealand v Great Britain (Christchurch)
Saturday
Prime Minister’s XIII v France or Italy
Papua New Guinea v Tonga (Auckland – Double Header)
Samoa v Fiji (Auckland – Double Header)
Sunday
NSW Cup v Queensland Cup
State of Origin 3
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.