A three week stand alone Origin hiatus is too much. I'm a believer in some kind of stand alone Origin fixture week, but the sticking point for most of us is having three consecutive stand alone Origin weeks with NRL free weekends... it is just too many.
At the moment it is obvious people aren't happy with the current system where all three NRL weekend rounds are intertwined with Origin. The quality of the NRL competition drops like an anchor. Every year it's the same argument where no one is happy. A possible compromise could be to have two Origins as stand alone and only one Origin match intertwined with an NRL round.
Maybe game one and game three as stand alone with the middle Origin game in the mixed format we have now, that way only one weekend is a busted weekend. It's obvious, NRL Teams could do with two evenly spaced out strategic rest weekends. Two Origin only weeks serves that means and no team is advantaged by having their bye on a more strategic weekend.
In other news, the knockout comp Gould has suggested is an often put forward fantasy idea that simply won't work... the simple facts are the teams that lose in the first week of such a competition are massively disadvantaged for another three weeks and so to are their fans. End that dream, we'll all be able to move forward together.
I do disagree with Gould on moving Origin to the weekend. It works way too well on a weeknight, and I can see Monday working very good as it is a fantastic ratings night, it is obvious that Wednesday night is also a winner while Friday night has always been a classic Rugby League night for many seasons.
Additionally no international fixtures (ie the ANZAC Test) should be played in the rounds before the Origin series. Play it after the series or in October after the Grand Final.
This period of our game that includes Origin is the publicly idolised jewel in the Australian sports crown. We need to find a better way.
