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We interrupt this State of Origin period for a round of the NRL. Well, a sort of round. Actually, it’s a shadow of a round, but we should be used to that by now.
It’s not going to change, because the NRL and its clubs don’t like the alternatives to what we’ve got.
That is, Origin games on Wednesdays, each three weeks apart, and Origin players missing from the games played in the round before and being forced to back up quickly in the round after.
We don’t have to like it though.
Byes are sprinkled over this period in an attempt to minimise the damage to teams that provide a significant number of players to the NSW and Queensland sides, but, it’s like putting a bandaid on a gaping wound.
The NRL has five games scheduled for this weekend and all of them are affected by Origin commitments. Some more than others and, most importantly, some teams more than others.
It’s the classic uneven playing field.
Out of the 34 players selected for the Origin game at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday, and therefore held out from this weekend’s games, 23 come from teams that are playing. The other 11 are from the six teams that have byes.
Friday night’s game between Canterbury, the competition leaders, and Sydney Roosters, the defending premiers, at ANZ Stadium, should have the potential to draw a big crowd. But, presumably, the crowd won’t be as big as it could have been because of the effect Origin has had on the two teams.
The Bulldogs will be missing four star players – Josh Morris, Josh Reynolds, Trent Hodkinson and Tony Williams. The Roosters will be missing three – Michael Jennings, Daniel Tupou and Aidan Guerra.
The Roosters are warm favourites for the game with bookmakers, primarily because their halves are intact and the Bulldogs have had to find two new ones.
The Roosters’ pairing of James Maloney and Mitchell Pearce were dumped by the Blues and replaced by the Bulldogs’ pairing of Reynolds and Hodkinson, and the result of this club game could swing purely on that.
The rest of the weekend sees Gold Coast, minus one Origin player, at home to the Warriors (none), Wests Tigers (two) at home to Brisbane (three), Canberra (one) at home to North Queensland (four) and Cronulla (two) at home to South Sydney (three).
Only two of the 16 teams in the competition have not been called upon to contribute any players to Origin. Joining the Warriors in that category is Penrith, which is one of the teams with the bye. The weekend off seems wasted on the Panthers.
The big winners out of all of this look to be the Raiders – and the big losers the Cowboys. That’s if the Raiders can get their act together and take advantage.
Canberra will be missing Josh Papalii to Origin, while the Cowboys will be without the star Origin quartet of Johnathan Thurston, James Tamou, Matt Scott and Brent Tate. That situation is grossly unfair to the Cowboys, but we’ve seen this sort of thing happen to teams so often in the past that we’re obviously supposed to accept it as just one of those things.
Some people will argue that this is simply an unfortunate by-product of having star players at your club, and that if you’re not prepared to lose star players to Origin then you shouldn’t bother having them.
They say that it is those star players that make it possible for your team to win the premiership, so suck it up during the potentially hard times of the Origin period. I understand that argument, but it still doesn’t justify what is happening this weekend.
It’s like going to see a theatre production only to discover the big-name star is having a night off and his understudy is playing the lead role. Even if he does a reasonably good job you’re still going to walk out at the end of the show thinking you’ve been stiffed.
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