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Both the Broncos versus Tigers and Dragons versus Cowboys clashes reminded us on the weekend of the invaluable influence that Origin has on the premiership competition.
On Friday night we witnessed a courageous Wests outfit clinch victory over a depleted Brisbane side lacking the outs of six Origin stars. Darius Boyd, Corey Oates, Sam Thaiday, Matt Gillett, Corey Parker and Josh McGuire were all missed in the Broncos’ 18-19 loss.
It was their forward pack that took the biggest battering, losing the metres gained battle 1398 to 1714 after having dominated in this area in their crushing 26-0 win over the Red V in Round 6.
On the following night we saw a dogged St George side beat North Queensland 14-10. The visitors were without Origin superstars Johnathan Thurston, Matt Scott, Michael Morgan and James Tamou and subsequently recorded their lowest score for the year to indicate a lack of firepower in attack.
At Lang Park it was a tale of Brisbane vying for its ninth win for the season hosting a side looking for just win number five and a club that not long ago had been thrashed 60-6 at the hands of the Raiders.
South of the Tweed River, we then saw a side looking for its sixth win play host to a Cowboys outfit shooting for win number nine on the march to defend a premiership.
The fact that in both games the competition underdogs came up trumps shows that Origin is great for the premiership competition as it serves to level-out team line-ups during the Origin period.
Despite the salary cap, there is a clear discrepancy in talent across club rosters in the NRL.
Brisbane, North Queensland and the Roosters all boast both a richness and depth of talent more impressive than all other clubs and head and shoulders above the rosters of Newcastle, Gold Coast and St George.
The fact that six Brisbane players will run out for the opening Origin clash this Wednesday night, a number no other club equals, is a striking indication of the Broncos’ unmatched squad.
As equally as telling is that eight Brisbane stars were named for the Anzac Test early in May, likewise more than any other club.
Playmakers Ben Hunt and Anthony Milford are also dominating the competition, the halfback leading in try assists and Milford a joint-first for leading try-scorer.
Oates is also a top-five try-scorer and is running third in total line-breaks, while Parker is in the top five for total hit-ups.
Although Wests are blessed with arguably the league’s most promising crop of young, upcoming talent given the likes of fullback James Tedesco, halves Mitchell Moses and Luke Brooks, prop Aaron Woods and a wealth of exciting outside backs, it’s a squad at this stage well behind that of Wayne Bennett’s boys and other clubs.
If it wasn’t for the competition-leveller that the Origin period is, the Tigers would have returned home winless on Friday night and we would have witnessed a thumping win to JT and clan at WIN Stadium on Saturday.
Bennett has for a long time strongly opposed Origin in its current format and again didn’t hold back in a recent press conference in the build-up to the series.
“If you look at the record books with the Broncos, nearly every season that I’ve coached here, we are somewhere where we are now and look at where we finish after Origin. We’re all over the shop,” Bennett said.
The super-coach criticised the interstate rivalry despite admitting to his side being blessed with the best players in the competition.
“During the Origin period, we have to play Melbourne and be in Sydney and Auckland,” he said.
“We are talking about the best players in the game, the best players in our team, not the second and third best players, our best players.”
The toll that Origin has on star-studded line-ups such as Brisbane’s is huge, but it’s exactly that which makes the three-game series great for the premiership competition.
If the salary cap doesn’t do a sufficient job of leveling the playing field, something else needs to stand up.
Origin does when it starts to reel in the competition’s high-flyers come the end of May every year.
Cheer, cheer the underdogs.
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