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http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...lling-club-footy/story-fni3fbgz-1226675611108
I know its a telegraph article and there are some poorly veiled agendas in the article, but it does make a fair point.
Being spaced so far apart, the SOO series does lose some momentum. Plus no one cares about club footy (except when there club is losing players to the Origin teams)
So what do yous think about suspending the season for a few weeks?
Personally I would stop it for 5 weeks and have an Origin game every 2 weeks on a Sunday night and have a big Grand Final-type festival day like the one DSmith was talking about. They would be able to have the full 25 man squads together for the whole 5 weeks which would be great for promotional stuff.
And to fill in the gaps put this 9-a-side comp on in the lead up days and the off weeks (Im sure they could put together enough teams to make that work; intentional teams, under 20's players, ect.)
Edit: Oh and ..... after five weeks of no club footy it would be like coming from an off season. the club fans would be excited and i imagine the crowds would get a nice boost.
Aaaaand you would get rid of the uneven bye structure and those crappy bye weekend where there are only like three games
STATE of Origin might be the showpiece event of the season but it is killing the NRL competition.
Club-game crowds are down by 23.4 per cent since the series started, TV ratings have slumped, players are suffering burnout and teams are getting an unfair advantage over others.
Two of the form teams in the competition are the Warriors and the Panthers, who have both stormed into finals contention because they don't provide any Origin players.
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The Warriors were undefeated since Origin started, going into last night's game against the Rabbitohs in Perth.
They've beaten the Broncos twice, Manly, the Knights and Roosters, all of whom supply their highly paid stars to Origin.
The Panthers have flogged St George Illawarra twice and the Titans since Origin started.
Over the same period, the Broncos have lost five from six without Sam Thaiday, Justin Hodges, Matt Gillett and Corey Parker.
The Storm and the Cowboys have both handed over their four best players to Origin (the most of all the clubs) and have struggled as a result.
Melbourne gave up the competition lead to the Rabbitohs and the Cowboys are fighting to make the top eight.
Rugby league is the only major competition in the world that has such an unlevel playing field around representative football.
Australian clubs in rugby union's Super competition have all had a month off while their best players have been on duty for the Wallabies.
The English Premier League has free weekends set aside for internationals and World Cup qualifiers every year. Their TV networks just put up with it.
The NRL refuses to have stand-alone Origin weekends because broadcasters want games and programming every weekend.
Fans, however, are sick and tired of paying to watch substandard football without the superstars.
In round 12 there were only four NRL matches played but they were still missing 18 Origin players.
The average crowd for the first 11 rounds of the competition was 17,100. It has since dropped to 13,600, a fall of 23.4 per cent.
So what is our fearless leader Dave Smith doing about this rather important issue? Absolutely nothing.
Dave's in England right know, conveniently at the same time his family is there on holiday.
Forget the salary cap dramas, the terrible standard of refereeing, the fight to keep Sonny Bill Williams or this Origin fiasco ... Dave is at his first international board meeting.
The game that has only three serious countries competing, Australia, New Zealand and England, is apparently more important than dealing with what fans have been served up since Origin started.
Why an IRLB meeting couldn't have been done by a video conference call is anyone's guess.
Andrew Hill, the NRL's head of game development, is in England too.
They will also be watching the Australian Jillaroos, the Australian Students, the Australian Wheelchair Team, the Australian Police Team and the Australian Armed Forces Team at the Festival of World Cups, which finishes Tuesday.
So what is the solution to fixing the mess Origin creates and the fact some clubs have to give up millions of dollars of their talent, risk injury and suspension, while their rivals play on as normal and take full advantage of such an obviously unfair set of circumstances?
Why not play Origin over three straight weekends? Allow NSW and Queensland to pick squads of 22 players to be used over the three weekends.
Let the series gather momentum like the Lions-Wallabies rather than this stop-start excitement over more than six weeks.
Call the club games off. Send the stars who aren't playing to the bush on promotional tours.
Stage a midweek Sevens or a Nine's NRL club tournament to keep the broadcasters happy.
Do something ... because nothing is more important than this premiership being played out on a level field.
I know its a telegraph article and there are some poorly veiled agendas in the article, but it does make a fair point.
Being spaced so far apart, the SOO series does lose some momentum. Plus no one cares about club footy (except when there club is losing players to the Origin teams)
So what do yous think about suspending the season for a few weeks?
Personally I would stop it for 5 weeks and have an Origin game every 2 weeks on a Sunday night and have a big Grand Final-type festival day like the one DSmith was talking about. They would be able to have the full 25 man squads together for the whole 5 weeks which would be great for promotional stuff.
And to fill in the gaps put this 9-a-side comp on in the lead up days and the off weeks (Im sure they could put together enough teams to make that work; intentional teams, under 20's players, ect.)
Edit: Oh and ..... after five weeks of no club footy it would be like coming from an off season. the club fans would be excited and i imagine the crowds would get a nice boost.
Aaaaand you would get rid of the uneven bye structure and those crappy bye weekend where there are only like three games
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