The relocation of Origin I to Townsville, and the surrounding excitement, has served to once more demonstrate the emotional power that the series has.
State of Origin 1 coverage
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At very short notice, the game has sold out, hotels are snapped up, and sales of XXXX are surely through the roof.
From a purely financial point of view, Origin is a cash cow for a sport that was just last year in the financial doldrums.
The $8 million incentive from the Palaszczuk government, plus the myriad of fees from state governments for previous hosting rights, demonstrates such prowess.
Origin is a potent weapon in the obsessively conflictual comparison to the AFL. It is by far the most-watched rugby league event in Australia, and one of the most viewed televisual events in general.
Is it feasible to further expand the concept, in all forms?
For the men, might we one day see the series expand to four or five games? Such a move wouldn’t be without its controversy.
There are already annual complaints about competitive integrity, with the best players plucked from league games for mid-week Origin.
But the NRL is a competition with a salary cap designed to ensure sporting meritocracy. There is no risk of relegation, and an end-of-season play-off system is used to crown the champions.
Players are not being lost to international duty, and the series brings in more attention (and cash) than the regular season games.
Panthers fans may lament their loss to the Tigers, but that is the sort of result that should satiate casual onlookers. For a competition with ideals of any of the 16 being able to triumph, it’s not to be dismissed.
(Photo by Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
We could have games in Sydney, Brisbane, a neutral location, and more outside of the capitals.
Newcastle was touted as a potential replacement this year, and it’s easy to see why. There’s room for temporary stands and, in line with the wishes of football fans from Newcastle Jets, safe standing sections could be utilised.
For big games, that could bring the capacity to that not far off of Suncorp, whilst allowing more relaxed viewing for other times.
But beyond the men, there exists an underutilised opportunity for Origin expansion within the women’s game. It was only brought under the umbrella in 2018, and still consists of just one game.
Especially with the lack of opportunity for meaningful and financially remunerative fixtures, surely Origin merits at least a two-game series. One game in each state, operating on an aggregate basis, would bring in a degree of fairness if nothing else.
A three-game series, with two-time home advantage rotated, or even taken to neutral venues, would also do the trick.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Double-headers with the men in Perth or Adelaide may seem attractive, but equally so would be the possibility of being trailblazers by taking it to Port Moresby.
Women’s Origin could take the sport to those areas without regular NRL access.
Places like Sunshine Coast this year, North Sydney in years gone by, or possibly country venues like Rockhampton, Wagga Wagga, Mackay and Coffs Harbour – all would appreciate the opportunity to watch a State of Origin game.
In the same vein, wheelchair rugby league offers similar opportunities. Coming into a World Cup year where the Wheelaroos have a decent chance of glory in Liverpool (north-west England, not west Sydney), there exist opportunities to bring the game to more than the 1000 who turned up for its previous and only iteration.
There’s the warm, fuzzy liberal motivation for such backing. Fairness, equality, opportunity, and all that.
But from a financial perspective, there are prizes to be had for those with a vision, a plan and long-term motivation. These are areas that, at the very least, merit investigation to determine their feasibility.
Rugby league has always had greater club following than representative attention. Unlike rugby union where allegiances and attention fall front and centre on national sides, league fans tend to pour their hearts and souls into their club.
This is in part because of the limited opportunities for expressions of representative pride in the sport.
State of Origin offers such an outlet, over a very limited number of occasions. Surely someone at the top is working out how more can be done to capitalise on this following.
matth
Roar Guru
I'd say the $6.5M tipped in the the QLD government will go some way to offsetting the crowd reduction. I'd love to see Newcastle get a reciprocal game next year, but of course the NSW government wouldn't tip in the same money.
Paul
Roar Guru
The SOO series is all about making money and this is the NRL's one chance to decide how best to maximise income from this event. The only reason they've taken these games on the road is because of the cash they receive, be it from the crowds or from the various State governments. It might seem to many like a dream come true that Townsville scores this game but in reality, the NRL must be filthy it misses out on staging game 1 in front of at least 60 or 70,000 at the MCG and instead has to settle for maybe 30,000 in Northern Qld. In the current era, where money is really tight, that has to hurt. As for what happens in the future, I don't think the NRL really cares, as long as it makes as much money as it possibly can from these 3 games
Rob9
Roar Guru
Sorry Sam, I hope nobody at the top is charged with messing with the origin formula. I think playing it at neutral venues and on ovals has already subtracted some of the magic around SOO. I’d be winding this back to the days of Sydney/Brisbane/Sydney or Brisbane/Sydney/Brisbane. Townsville was a good call under the circumstances but we live in strange times in 2021 and playing in smaller, regional towns shouldn’t be explored when things settle down. As well as scrapping the recent trend of the SOO-roadshow of including a neutral venue, the only other adjustment I’d make to Origin is making it a Monday night event. The game’s a TV-event and it’s always going to sell out at the ground so what the night of the week it falls on doesn’t really matter from the engagement standpoint. What a Monday game would do is give players at least 3 days of rest before representing their club team again on the round that follows origin. Of course they need to miss one club round before the game, but I think the NRL should be looking at ways to minimise the disruption that SOO has on the regular season.