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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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…
QConners
Roar Pro
Your idea is definitely an improvement. However I'm not sure how happy clubs would be in losing home games and revenue. I think a much simpler version is to have Origin coaches announce a squad of 20-22 and have Origin on 3 consecutive Wednesday nights, with the club games still happening on the weekends however each team has a bye or two to limit the amount of games without their stars. This means we get Origin over and done with in 3 weeks, rather than 8, as well as keeping fans and broadcasters happy as they still get their weekend games.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
Come see me in 2 years when every major soccer league in the world gets decimated for the World Cup. Or when it happens for every African Cup of Nations
Alex L
Roar Rookie
It would seem more sensible to me that we could just shorten the NRL season a little and do it at the end as a run up to the internationals -- the Kiwis and a few of the Pacific Islands could even have a parallel round robin tournament with the winner getting a series against the Kangaroos or something.
Michael Keeffe
Roar Guru
I would say if he gets picked for NSW he'll probably pick Origin and if he's not selected for NSW he'll play for Tonga.
Michael Keeffe
Roar Guru
It's an improvement but I still think they need to go further.
Michael Keeffe
Roar Guru
I didn't say it ruined it, I said that club footy suffers during that period. Out of the best 50 players in the NRL, 34 of them are unavailable for 2 clubs games and backing up for 3 (assuming they back up). No other professional sport anywhere does this to their top club competition. Crowds suffer during the period because the fans don't want to turn up to games where the best players aren't on show. Can you imagine the AFL doing this? Or any of the top sporting competitions from around the world?
Michael Keeffe
Roar Guru
Maybe a NZ v ENG series as well during this period or NZ vs a rotation of Pacific Island sides.
KnightsFan
Roar Pro
That would be up to him? He would simply have to choose and if he wants to play for both unfortunately it would no longer be possible.
turbodewd
Roar Guru
Hang on....so if a person is born in Australia of, say, Tongan heritage. Who does he play for? NSW or Tonga?
Bnick
Guest
I like stand alone weekends ...so many things wrong with the current system hopefully we can see origin played at a reasonable time in the future what annoys me most is a team like dragons plays storm and Cowboys with all there players out for origin and wins a game they would normally otherwise lose ...4 competition points -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
KnightsFan
Roar Pro
I agree with having 3 stand alone rep weekends. I would have New Zealand playing aswell and bring in the Cook Islands. You can also add countries like the USA, Canada, Lebanon and South Africa etc to really make it an International event. I would also like to see the amount of games clubs play shorten to max 22 a year.
Don
Roar Rookie
They have brought it forward to 2017. A bit like the Thursday games and Saturday FTA matches were to start in 2018 but it was negotiated to start them immediately and then CH9 quickly onsold the Sat matches to Fox.
jamesb
Guest
Isn't that from 2018, the start of the next tv deal?
Boz
Guest
Just get it done in 3 weeks. Have other games such as Pacific Island tests - played on the weekends as well. Also reducing the NRL comp so that each team plays each other only once in the regular season would be a much fairer draw. Would love to see this happen but I feel there is more chance of seeing pigs fly.
Don
Roar Rookie
Is no one aware that next year we move to a stand alone weekend for game 2 on a Sunday night? So the other 2 matches are on the usual Wednesday night cycle but the 2nd game is on a stand alone rep weekend with no NRL played. Pacific Nation tests are also played on the Rep weekend. There are 17 days break between game 1 and 2 then another 17 days between games 2 and 3. The whole thing is over within 34 days. The premiership is also cut back by one to 25 games next season. So the season is 26 weeks plus 4 weeks for finals. Then we move to a fixed window for Internationals. I'd say we let this roll out next year and not worry about changing much else.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
Origin doesn't ruin club football, teams inability to manage their roster and salary cap allows allows that to happen Stand alone weekends will be a bust. Just wait until the one standalone comes in next season, most fans will complain how bad it is
jamesb
Guest
I'd love to see NZ have their own origin concept, either as a one off game or a three game series. Or for the kiwis to play against England. The NZ players need to be doing something during those stand alone weekends.
Agent11
Guest
Looks like a good plan although I think 5- 6 weeks is too long a break in the season. It would need to be condensed a bit imo. Maybe 3 Stand alone weekends in a row of Origin, or you could even have them on 3 consecutive Monday Nights (better for ch 9) with NRL starting the weekend following game 3.
Hutch
Guest
Some really good ideas there. Stand alone rep weekends are a must, but there needs to be tests or domestic rep games for NZ as well. It would be great if the northern hemisphere followed suit too!