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Parramatta coach Brad Arthur must lament his luck at times. His team got a killer start to the season, then when they hit form, he gets smashed by Origin call-ups.
His Eels have been in red hot form, winning five straight in the NRL to move themselves right back into contention for the top eight and, with a good wing, the top four.
This Saturday evening will see Parra host the Warriors, one of their biggest rivals for a finals berth, at Commbank Stadium. It should be a chance to make a statement.
Instead, it might well be a non-event: Arthur will be missing his pack leader, his inspirational captain and his key halfback after Reagan Campbell-Gillard, Clint Gutherson and Mitchell Moses are all called into NSW camp for the dead rubber Origin fixture next Wednesday night.
While Arthur would never say it – and will be at pains to point out how proud he is to have his stars selected – he would be well within his rights to seethe at how his good work could well be undone by something out of his control and, ultimately, meaningless.
Moses was in the Blues’ squad for Game 2 and might have been expected to be there to see out the series, but RCG and Gutho have been parachuted in on the back of form for the Eels, ruling them out of the ability to actually contribute to the club in one of their biggest games of the year.
The players will take the call-ups when they come, of course, but they might be less pleased about it if Parra are pipped to the eight by, say, the Warriors – who have nobody in Origin. Given that both have nine wins at this stage, that it well within the bounds of possibility.
Many coaches have fired up at the timing of Origin – and more on that later – but in truth, the current set-up is able to adapt to negate situations like this.
Given that nothing is at stake in Origin, Blues coach Brad Fittler could simply have chosen not to include Gutherson or Campbell-Gillard, and instead elevated Scott Drinkwater and Spencer Leniu, both of whom are in camp and on the Bye this weekend with the Cowboys.
This isn’t without precedent. Queensland erred like this in Game 1, selecting Tom Dearden as 18th man and ruling him out of a Cowboys game – ironically against Parramatta, a game North Queensland lost.
In Game 2, they opted to go with AJ Brimson for Game 2, so that Dearden could play for his club, starring as they beat the Panthers that weekend.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
You can go back much further on this, because the idea of leaving players out was widespread in the 1980s, especially for the Blues, with regular NSW stars often left out of the third game when the series was settled.
In the first Origin dead rubber, in 1984, Wayne Pearce was excused NSW duty and played for Balmain instead – against Terry Lamb, who also was allowed to skip the rep game.
In 1985, Steve Mortimer and Noel Cleal were not asked to play and represented their clubs instead, and in 1988, Lamb was again left out for Game 3 before returning to the squad the next year.
Indeed, in 1988, Peter Sterling was sat down for the meaningless third Origin fixture before playing in the halves for the Kangaroos against the touring Lions a week later, but played for Parramatta in the meantime.
Andrew Ettingshausen and Laurie Daley were both left out of 1989’s third game and on the Queensland side, Mal Meninga played for Canberra the week before and the week after the 1990 dead rubber.
By 1993, the practice had died out – Meninga played the dead rubber that year – and by 1996, the Blues were not rotating players and, famously fielded the same 17 throughout the series.
Since then, the concept has fallen away and any Origin side is picked first, with clubs an afterthought.
It’s not new that teams will miss players during Origin. Brisbane had nine – and their coach – play in Game 2 of 2002, but also got the Bye for two of the three games that year. Parra have played all three pre-Origin rounds in 2023, the only team to have done so.
While Arthur has said nothing, Wayne Bennett has been among the most vocal in criticising the current schedule, with several club bosses lining up behind him.
Both Bennett and several club bosses have expressed a preference for playing Origin in a burst in the middle of the year, with one camp that runs the whole way through and no NRL games played outside of it.
This would also remove the need to back up after Origin, which players inevitably do but can have dire consequences, as seen with Nathan Cleary’s hamstring tear this year.
The other option, of moving the whole series to the end of the year as was seen in 2020 during the Covid affected season, would directly impinge on the time set aside for internationals and likely be a non-starter for that reason.
Martin Taupau leads the Samoan team’s war dance. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
The three-week window could in fact positively boost the international game: only around 40 players get picked for Origin, but the vast majority of NRL players are eligible for other nations, and the Pacific Tests could be expanded to provide weekend content for broadcasters.
It’s hard to imagine a world where Samoa, Tonga and New Zealand playing off over three weekends – with Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands as curtain raisers – wouldn’t be a valuable product, especially if games were scheduled in the other state to Origin or, indeed, in New Zealand.
With a three-week gap, it’s also possible to get England to visit, as that would allow for a sufficiently long lead-time into major games. Earlier this year, St Helens condensed their World Club Challenge visit into three weeks, with one week preparation followed by two games.
That’s not to mention Women’s Origin and potential internationals that could offer another night’s worth of content and provide a stellar kick-off event for the NRLW season.
Moving Men’s Origin would enable the league to create a clear break in the season – allowing all the other, non-rep players to rest – and built tentpoles around which they can tailor their content offering.
The season currently features 25 rounds spread out over 27 weeks, with each team getting two byes in the Origin period, either before or after the rep games.
Shutting down the NRL for three weeks could see that cut to one bye per team, the effects spread out across the year.
It would also allow the season to be split into chunks, with a major tentpole at Magic Round ten games in, then a five weeks run into Origin, a break, then a ten game run home to the finals.
The current set-up, which denigrates the NRL competition for eight weeks in what should be the most exciting time of the year.
Parramatta have felt the brunt of this, but they’re not the only ones. Origin generates a huge amount of cash for the NRL, but doesn’t come close to what the league itself creates. Yet it remains, for a full third of the season, the main talking point.
It’s time to change it – which would give both Origin, the NRL – and, potentially, internationals – the respect they deserve.