F–k the NRL, for all their attention on the big State of Origin series, and after all the excitement of the three game festival, all that’s left is the fact that Origin time NRL sucks.
State of Origin is rather large, and exciting while it is on, but why should it dictate the middle part of every NRL season. The blur of maroon and blue proves a massive distraction for regular NRL fans, mainly due to the paltry offering on show. And not just a week or two, but nearly two whole months of the season are ruined every year by State of Origin. A heft one third of the season set for mediocrity.
Before the first game of State of Origin, punters were served up the first four games of a split round which stretches over a few months. Even battle hardened NRL fans known to our website admitted that they barely watched their own teams run around let alone multiple games. We await the second half of that farce soon.
Although, it has to be said it is a much better compromise than the previous strategy of having two months of fixtures of varying volumes. Never quite sure if the next round will feature 4,5,6,7,8 games. It may be better but Origin Time NRL Sucks.
Then there is this week’s Round 13 fixtures which sees at least every second player pulling out or being rested.
Of course the NRL start off the Origin Time NRL Round 13 with Souths v Newcastle as the Friday 6pm kick off. While you can’t predict every Origin player who will make the side, an early eye could see that at a bare minimum both Souths and Newcastle were going to supply two each. Minimum.
And who knows how the next rounds will go after that. One can only presume possibly slightly worse, given the extra toll on the players.
As part of the fun this week, we have seen a few players walk out on their clubs for personal leave or to find a new home
You have to ask yourself, is there any other sporting competition that cannibalises itself more than the NRL.
There are a few examples in other sports, mainly in European football where governing body behemoths UEFA and FIFA give their competitions priority over club competitions around Europe including the mega popular EPL, but they are competing governing bodies within the same sport. Not like the NRL, who control the NRL competition and State of Origin.
Other sports don’t though. Golf and Tennis have their big majors, and don’t dilute their competitions around the time of the majors. In fact they ensure that the lead in events matter.
What the solution?
What makes sense is standalone State of Origin, and the NRL appear to have admitted as such with one of three Origins standing by itself on the Sunday night. But one isn’t enough.
Nor is spreading them out over two months.
If the worry about standalone State of Origins is a lack of on field action, then many (including us) have suggested a Pacific Nations Test Series across the three games. And hell, why not start an expanded Women’s NRL competition with State of Origin Game 1. Depending on how many team are allowed to play in the NRLW competition in the future, you could have plenty of games to choose from.
We previously went one step further and came up with an entire new draw featuring standalone origin encounters – which is available via this link.
Grand designs aside, we’d settle for the three standalone origins to start with and go from there.
It is time for the NRL worry more about the sport and their overall product than jersey sales, and keeping a FTA broadcaster happy.
How about at least try in 2020 to have the three State of Origins as standalone.
And perhaps for the rubbish four game rounds, take them to the bush in a truncated version of the Queensland Cup’s excellent Country Week promotion. That would at least make the games with depleted teams playing each other a little more interesting.
Or something different, as currently Origin Time NRL sucks.
