Origin vs NRL

[Jetka100]

I'm usually just a reader of this site, but one of things I actually enjoyed from the recent Wallabies series vs England was how it took place over a 3 week period. Given that from 2018 there will be a standalone weekend for Origin 2, I think there is a great opportunity to condense the series so that there is only 10 days between each Origin match.

I would still ensure that each team had 2 byes each. One before an Origin match and one after. This would mean a player who plays in all Origin matches would only have one extra NRL match during the Origin period and each team would only have one match without their Origin players.

I would also group the teams into two groups. One group would have the top 8 teams in relation to the number of origin players from the year before (with adjustments for retirements, long term injuries or moves overseas) with the other 8 teams in the remaining group. Both groups would have their byes at the same time. The first group would have their byes either side of Origin 3 when fatigue starts to become a real issue for the players. The other group would have their byes either side of Origin 1.

This would ensure fairness in the allocation of byes over this period. It would give all teams a good mid season break to refresh and get over the niggling injuries. It would reduce the burden on the origin players. It would also limit the impact of Origin on the NRL season.

 

[VictoryFC]

Believe me, you're not the first person to raise the idea of a designated period in the calendar for Origin on these forums. Been discussed ad nauseum.

 

[Jetka100]

I'm not advocating a designated period for Origin because I still think there needs to be at least 4 NRL games each weekend apart from the standalone weekend. I actually think a designated period is a terrible idea.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

If youre going to condence it into 3/4 weeks, why not put the NRL on hold??

We do it for 1 week over the Internationa round and the NRL hasnt died yet. We do it for 20 weeks during the off season and the earth is still spinning.

Why not put the NRL on hold, and NOT have our 2 premium products detracting from each other.

(and with all of the excess NRL players available, this could be a period for volunteering. Send them around the country for a week to help out with junior comps right in the thick of the kids season)

 

[T-Boon]

If youre going to condence it into 3/4 weeks, why not put the NRL on hold??

We do it for 1 week over the Internationa round and the NRL hasnt died yet. We do it for 20 weeks during the off season and the earth is still spinning.

Why not put the NRL on hold, and NOT have our 2 premium products detracting from each other.

(and with all of the excess NRL players available, this could be a period for volunteering. Send them around the country for a week to help out with junior comps right in the thick of the kids season)

and/or play a 9's tournament for 3 or 4 weeks. Take games to country areas. Heck include a NSW country and Qld country team.

 

[Evil Homer]

The sooner you Aussies realise how much of a white elephant Origin is, the better. Play it as a preseason comp or something if you must.

 

[Jason Maher]

The sooner you Aussies realise how much of a white elephant Origin is, the better. Play it as a preseason comp or something if you must.

Spoken like a true Englishman who has no understanding of the interstate rivalry between NSW and Queensland and why it matters (and why it attracts scores of casuals who rarely if ever watch another game of footy).

I do agree with the OP on the need to condense the series. There is no need whatsoever for it to destroy 2 months of the season. Have game 1 and game 3 on Wednesday 3 weeks apart, and game 2 on the Sunday in the middle. 11 days between games 1 and 2, 10 days between games 2 and 3.

 

[DiegoNT]

The sooner you Aussies realise how much of a white elephant Origin is, the better. Play it as a preseason comp or something if you must.

I love how poms and kiwis fail to grasp how big origin is in australia

 

[Hollywood Jesus]

and/or play a 9's tournament for 3 or 4 weeks.

Throw in some Pacific Test matches and you might have something there.

 

[Frailty]

I don't mind the idea of putting a hold on the NRL season for Origin to played over three consecutive weekends.

However, there needs to be other games on the calender as well in my opinion with the concept of growing the game. This could include one or a mix of other internationals (pacific tri-series or a tournament over the 3 weeks), women's origin or internationals, and a emerging stars knockout tournament (teams comprised of U20s and NRL players with <30 games).

You could even do a city-country three game series comprised of players not involved in origin.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

and/or play a 9's tournament for 3 or 4 weeks. Take games to country areas. Heck include a NSW country and Qld country team.

Thats not a bad idea...

Send 3 or 4 teams to a given location and have them play a round-robin. Most players would only spend 20 minutes playing, but its an hours and a half of NRL in a location that would never otherwise get a game.

 

[siv]

Two representative fortnights seperated by 4 NRL rounds

Week1 - CvC
Week2 - SOO I

then 4 NRL rounds

Week3 - SOO II
Week4 - SOO III

Then you can play a 4 nation Pacific Cup with a final

NZ could play in the Pacific Cup or play England in a Test Series

 

[Perth Red]

be nice if it was a competition rather than a usual Qland walk over.
Funny thing is it has become an event rather than a RL rivalry hence its big viewing viewing figures nationally amongst people who care little about RL or about two states they have no affiliation with. Just a shame the game wasnt able to create the event at a test match level rather than a state level but there you go, such is our small time approach.
Its a good money earner so we will have to live with it.

 

[Frailty]

Giving more thought to my ideas, this is what I came up with:

Week One
Thursday - Origin I
Sunday - City v Country I
Friday/Saturday - Pacific Test Tournament Round 1
Fiji v Samoa
Tonga v PNG

Week Two
Thursday - Origin II
Sunday - City v Country II
Pacific Test Tournament Round 2
Fiji v Tonga
Samoa v PNG

Week Three
Thursday - Origin III
Sunday - City v Country III
Friday/Saturday - Pacific Test Tournament Round 3
Fiji v PNG
Samoa v Tonga

State of Origin
Each state is to select a squad of 24 for the entire series, with the teams selected on the Tuesday prior to the game. Only changes to the squad will be through injury.
Thursday night timeslot will still give TV ratings the boost that Wednesday night has.

Pacific Tournament
Four team round robin tournament consisting of Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and PNG, with the two highest ranked teams to play a final at the end of the season for the Pacific Championship.

City v Country
Following the same model as the State of Origin, each team is two select a squad of 24 for the series, with teams selected on the Tuesday before each game. Only changes to squad will be through injury or elevation to NSW squad (through injury).
Each game will be played in a different regional town to cover NSW, i.e. Game 1 in Northern NSW, Game 2 in Western NSW, and Game 3 in Southern NSW (each year to change).
Games played on Sunday ensure that grounds will not need to have the lights that meet NRL standard.

 

[Perth Red]

If the financial compensation was big enough an England v NZ test series in NZ the same weekends as origin would be possible. The SL season is too long anyway and I'm sure three weekends in mid season would be acceptable if clubs got money for it. Rest of SL could hold a nines or something same weekends.
If the income generated from Oz/NZ TV and sponsorship, crowds etc covered it would be questionable though.

 

[Jetka100]

While I would love to see 3 weeks of rep footy, the commercial realities of the broadcast deals would make it difficult to achieve in the middle of the season which was some of the reasoning behind my more compromised approach which would hopefully reduce the impact on the NRL season and the players. At the moment, the whole series stretches on too long and the NRL comp becomes diminished as a result. I also don't think the NRL would ever want to give up 3 whole weekends to the other codes domestic comps, especially not initially. To be honest, I would actually like to see a more reinvigorated international rep schedule at the end of each NRL season. I think over a cycle of 4 years, there needs to be a World Cup, an Aus/NZ series, 4 nations and a UK series (one year in the UK, next time in Australia). Get rid of the City/Country and make each team play one proper NRL match in a regional centre. Also remove the mid year Aus/NZ test.

 

[Perth Red]

Doesn't seem to be an issue with other sports, maybe we just need to control the media deals rather than allowing the media to control us? End of day we were told SOO was worth a gazzilion $'s to TV yet the Tv deal hardly reflected this. Sell it as a stand alone product alongside the 3 or 4 other rep games you could have on the rep weekend and let it cover any loss from the NRL season part of the deal. Introduce 2 more teams

Playing weakened smaller club rounds during origin does nothing to fight off other codes either, not that it is any real threat at all not to have club football on for three season weekends a year.

 

[Frailty]

While I would love to see 3 weeks of rep footy, the commercial realities of the broadcast deals would make it difficult to achieve in the middle of the season which was some of the reasoning behind my more compromised approach which would hopefully reduce the impact on the NRL season and the players. At the moment, the whole series stretches on too long and the NRL comp becomes diminished as a result. I also don't think the NRL would ever want to give up 3 whole weekends to the other codes domestic comps, especially not initially. To be honest, I would actually like to see a more reinvigorated international rep schedule at the end of each NRL season. I think over a cycle of 4 years, there needs to be a World Cup, an Aus/NZ series, 4 nations and a UK series (one year in the UK, next time in Australia). Get rid of the City/Country and make each team play one proper NRL match in a regional centre. Also remove the mid year Aus/NZ test.

This is such a ridiculous claim that only the Telegraph and Rothfield push. 3 weeks off club football isn't going to damage the game anymore than having an off-season does. It certainly doesn't do anywhere near the damage that producing substandard club football does for the sport.

It's common practice for most major sports around the world to cease play for a couple of weeks for international or representative games, and no one would argue that it damages those sports.

 

[Jetka100]

I certainly think the long breaks hurt the Super Rugby comp, especially when they also have games at unfriendly time slots. There are also a lot of people who would probably prefer to watch NRL games instead a rep games like the Jillaroos or city/country and would not want to go 3 whole weeks without weekend club games. I don't have anything against standalone weekends, I just think there needs to be incremental changes at this point in time that are going to be acceptable to players, fans, clubs, NRL and the broadcasters who pay most of the bills.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

be nice if it was a competition rather than a usual Qland walk over.
Funny thing is it has become an event rather than a RL rivalry hence its big viewing viewing figures nationally amongst people who care little about RL or about two states they have no affiliation with. Just a shame the game wasnt able to create the event at a test match level rather than a state level but there you go, such is our small time approach.
Its a good money earner so we will have to live with it.

I actually consider the biggest tragedy to be that we have had to quarantine NSW/QLD to Origin...

Was Origin not so popular, we could have run the Blues & the Maroons in the international circuits in place of the Kangaroos. (keep the Roos for special events like Lions tours or ANZAC Tests)

Having the 2 states teams in the international comps would have broken up Australias dominance giving other nations a chance and inspired more passion and interest from the Aussie audience. (international RL just doesnt have the same rivalry as Origin. I dont hate NZ/England like is hate Qld).

You can say states dont have a place in international comps, but its really no different to breaking up Great Britain and running out England/Ireland/Scottland/Wales in its place...