Time to end neutral Origin games?

[westerntiger]

After Wednesday night’s match in Adelaide I think it’s time up. Should we go back to the alternating two games Sydney two games Brisbane model or have games in Townsville etc like in 2021?

 

[SLRBRONCOS]

It's just a cash grab for the NRL at the moment and it's diminishing the product IMO. These oval stadiums are absolute shitholes for Rugby League and it seems that the games at neutral grounds have lost their charm. I think a neutral game should be once every 3 or 4 years.

We wouldn't see the Superbowl taken to a gimp of an oval field.

I doubt that we would be so keen to sell it off if the TV negotiations didn't flop.

 

[docbrown]

If I had to guess, I'd say around 50% to 60% of all TV viewers in South Australia were watching rugby league on Wednesday.

If you stop taking Origin games to Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne then you also end a major method for growing the game's appeal beyond NSW & QLD.

 

[Perth Red]

No, end of thread.

 

[Desert Qlder]

Absolutely, nobody likes it.

 

[ALX25]

Should it be held in Adelaide ever again? No.

Perth and Melbourne? Maybe.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

You can't play at an oval, the crowd were about 973 metres away from the action.

 

[RecordBreakingMaroons.]

NSW win in Game 1 this guy doesn't ask the question.

 

[westerntiger]

NSW win in Game 1 this guy doesn't ask the question.

I don’t want it played in perth and we won both games there

 

[RecordBreakingMaroons.]

I don’t want it played in perth and we won both games there

So why don't you post this in the threads you started after those wins backing up your objections? Or do those threads not exist(like I asserted above).

 

[some11]

Good for the game, bad for the die hards.

It hasn't got the same atmosphere.

 

[Wizardman]

I'd end the annual neutral game in a series.

I'd give a neutral game once every three years over a three year cycle.

Year 1: 2 qld, 1 nsw
Year 2: 2 nsw, 1 qld
Year 3: 1 neutral, 1 qld, 1 nsw

Reverse the cycle after the third year.

 

[Pneuma]

I think everybody has forgotten how hard it is to sell game 3 when it’s a dead rubber and it’s NSW with 2 games. One game in NSW and qld guarantees sellouts. The crowd at Adelaide was massive. Total attendance this year will be 180000. I will add however that as a Tassie lad I only go to games in Sydney or Brisbane. Preferably Sydney. Final note. The Nrl makes far too much money out of the current system to consider a change.

 

[Steel Saints]

I think it's a fair system at the moment. No state has an advantage. Personally I'm not a fan of the origin period. It relegates the NRL comp for the best part of two months, where some games are played without the origin players. Pretty amateurish.

So to compensate it, use origin has a marketing tool to promote the code by taking a neutral game to a non heartland state like South Australia.