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I love Origin! As a Queenslander, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed our winning streak but even back in the 1990s and early 2000s when I was only hopeful (rather than confident) about a win, I still loved it just as much. But Origin wrecks club footy for a third of the season.
Regardless of who you support and how much your team is affected, the overall quality of the competition suffers for too long.
What would have been a cracker of a game on Monday night between Canberra and North Queensland turned out to be one where we all knew the Cowboys would fight hard, but the Raiders would be too strong.
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» Expert tips and predictions
As it currently stands, eight rounds of the competition are affected by players missing, players backing up, half the teams not playing, or just generally forgetting that games are on because of all the Origin coverage.
It’s time for a solution. There are many options that have been floated around and to be honest most of them would be better than the current situation. Here are my thoughts:
Three stand-alone representative weekends a fortnight apart, including:
Pacific Tests on Friday and Saturday
Junior rep games on Sunday afternoon
State of Origin to be played at 7pm (actual kickoff) Sunday night
This is still primetime viewing for TV networks, right after their news, but early enough for kids to not be falling asleep before halftime.
The three NRL rounds that precede Origin would be ‘Super weekends’, similar to the UK concept: one weekend would be hosted in southeast Queensland, one in Sydney, and the other in New Zealand. One game would be played on Thursday, two on Friday and five on Saturday, all at the one venue or in the one region.
This would leave Sunday as the day for Origin teams to be announced, and a fan afternoon. So, in theory, the teams would be announced at 2pm in their respective states, followed by a fan afternoon until 5pm.
It would be a festival of footy that all the players would be required to stay at and the media would also be given access to all players throughout the course of the afternoon.
A total of three NRL rounds would be affected, and it would all be over in a much shorter period of time. If it were to happen in 2017, the schedule would look something like this:
Week 1 – NRL Super Round
Thursday May 25th – Saturday 27, Brisbane and Gold Coast
Sunday May 28 – Origin selection and fan day
Week 2 – Rep Weekend 1
Friday June 2 – Papua New Guinea vs Fiji
Saturday June 3 – Samoa vs Tonga
Sunday June 4 – Queensland vs NSW
Week 3 – NRL Super Round
Thursday June 8 – Saturday 10 – Sydney and Newcastle
Sunday June 11 – Origin selection and fan day
Week 4 – Rep Weekend 2
Friday June 16 – Papua New Guinea vs Tonga
Saturday June 17 – Fiji vs Samoa
Sunday June 18 – NSW vs Queensland
Week 5 – NRL Super Round
Thursday June 22 – Saturday 24 – Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington
Sunday June 25 – Origin selection and fan day
Week 6 – Rep Weekend 3
Friday June 30 – Papua New Guinea vs Samoa
Saturday July 1 – Fiji vs Tonga
Sunday July 2 – Queensland vs NSW
Normal NRL would resume the following weekend.
This schedule means that no Origin players are stood down for any club games, Origin is over in the much shorter period, and less club footy is affected. Origin players won’t be backing up two days after an Origin match for a club game either.
The super rounds may have to be condensed to Friday – Saturday so players aren’t backing up from Sunday Origin to a Thursday club game, but the overall concept works.
If Origin coaches were worried by the shorter preparation they could in the pre-season announce 30 man squads of players likely to be picked, and have a week-long pre-season camp to bond and get to know each other and how they are likely to play. Players from outside the 30 could still be selected, but most coaches know their likely line-ups before the season.
There are probably a few holes in this, and it may need some tinkering, but the NRL need to be bold and not allow the status quo to continue for years to come.
Over to you, Roarers…
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