Paul Kent: It took Payne Haas and Tino Fa’asumaleaui fisticuffs to make fans feel invested in Origin II
Anticipating a brawl has always been a big draw for Origin and banning it has seen viewers switch off in droves. But two 20-year-olds might have just done the game a big favour.
Opinion
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One of the few joys in this job is awaking to a Buzz Rothfield column slamming you for having a different opinion to him.
Call it a badge of honour.
It’s not the first time we’ve had different opinions when it comes to issues that divide rugby league.
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On Fox League’s NRL 360 show about the only thing we regularly agree on is to disagree.
State of Origin has become the latest fault line.
Game I was the lowest rating Origin game since the new ratings system began measuring viewers 17 years ago.
This, after the series ratings have declined year on year for the past five years. Origin II was the second lowest.
State of Origin is in trouble, and there are several reasons why.
But too many people are putting their heads down, afraid of the backlash to push the change that is needed because times have changed and the truth is no longer politically correct.
Better to be popular.
The greatest problem with Origin as it now stands is the lack of anticipation before the game. The only anticipation is the recognition of past glories when the actual truth is State of Origin is now played, and treated, like club football. The only reason there remains a difference is the calibre of player involved.
Given this, the belief here is Origin needs to find what it has lost.
Buzz took exception to my column Wednesday saying State of Origin needs to bring back the biff.
“This is outrageous and will never happen,” he wrote, just a few hours after it did actually happen.
“It was the loudest cheer all night,” Andrew Johns said on Channel Nine coverage after Payne Haas and Tino Fa’asumaleaui threw a couple of soft ones.
The second loudest, more a jeer, followed Fa’asuamaleaui to the sin-bin. Blues fans had spoken.
Finally, they felt invested in the game.
It has perfectly set-up Wednesday’s decider, which is the point all along.
Some time ago Origin lost its narrative, with the endless preview stories in the media, designed to hype the series, reduced to mining the background of players who might be dedicating the game to their sick aunty or half stepbrother, once removed, or reporting on some manufactured statistic that might or might not mean anything at all.
It is painful for the players and reporters alike.
The days of Benny Elias serving it to Steve Walters in the lead-up, because an Australian jersey is on the line, and viewers reading and hearing about it all week and so tuning in to see what might happen after kick-off have left the game years ago.
The punching ban was introduced under the belief that by making the game mum-friendly the NRL had the chance to grow the rough audience of 400,000 each Friday night into the four million that watched Origin.
Let’s attract the casual viewer.
But the opposite has happened. The casual viewer is increasingly deserting Origin.
Lost in this argument is that a fight, or inflammatory comment in the lead-up, sparked a reaction that fuelled the anticipation of fans.
Those sobbing it is simply a neanderthal bloodlust are exposing their own ignorance.
Anticipation drove Origin.
The game didn’t need a fight, as such, but the anticipation one might happen.
The moment the NRL banned the fight that anticipation disappeared. The viewers followed soon after, the casual viewer no longer given a reason to tune in.
Like it or not Origin has gone into decline and is more or less now a bloated version of club football. Better players, the same footy.
NRL boss Andrew Abdo said the biff will never be welcomed back.
“We won’t be bringing back the biff for Origin and referees won’t be instructed to be more lenient if a fight erupts,” he said.
“Those days are gone.
“Origin wasn’t built on brawls. It was built on rivalry and great characters. Rugby league is authentic and unscripted.”
However, the $750 fines dished out to Haas and Fa’asuamaleaui by the NRL’s match review committee suggests the biff is back at least for Origin.
Where the NRL goes from here is uncertain.
Rugby League Players Association boss Clint Newton is not as certain as Abdo that the game must continue this path.
“If we were on a seesaw it is too heavily weighted to the other side, which doesn’t bring to the surface everything that is fantastic in our game, which is the huge rivalries and confrontations,” he said.
“We need to couple it with the health and safety, we need that balance, but it seems like we’re handcuffed at the moment.”
The NRL’s fear is an increasingly litigious society and the threat that someday a player will sue the game for damage caused now.
This might be more easily solved than first imagined.
If combat sports can be safeguarded against litigation because of the acceptance there is an inherent risk of danger by taking part, then the NRL version of rugby league can be similar.
Origin is a brutal contest. That was and remains its appeal.
This elite version of the game, men who earn a living playing the game, is different from the park football version.
It contains an understanding this brutality is not for everyone which also means that those who play rugby league for enjoyment should not be subjected to it.
Already plenty of work is being done by the NRL, the NSW Rugby League and Queensland Rugby League along these lines; an elite version of the game and a safe, participatory version, the kind to keep the mums happy.
The delay is the disconnect between the stakeholders on what that should look like. The ARL Commission, for instance, struggles to understand what the State leagues are doing.
It has stalled all legitimate progress.
Until then, we wait.
And for some of us, we wait several more days when, whether the snowflakes want to admit to it or not, we will tune in to see what happens when Haas and Fa’asuamaleaui find each other again.
Anticipation.
I am giddy with excitement.
The next NRL star heading for the boxing ring
Origin has drifted into what is normally the golden window for the fight game, with the usual crossover from the winter sports ending to the summer sports starting leaving a little window open for the fighters to attract some attention.
Most attention is focused on the upcoming Tim Tszyu-Bowyn Morgan fight at Bankwest Stadium on December 16, with just as much interest in the Paul-Gallen-Mark Hunt co-main event.
With that, the tip out of the gyms is that another NRL player is set to step into the ring, possibly at the next big fight in Townsville.
How it is received remains to be seen, though.
The whisper in the gyms is that Brisbane prop Matt Lodge is getting ready to make his boxing debut, with Sydney trainers saying they have been approached about providing a possible opponent.
How Lodge would sell on pay-per-view would depend entirely on his opponent, although not for the usual reasons when NRL players get in the ring.
Most times, NRL fans are happy to watch how the footy player fares, not caring too much who the player is fighting, just hoping to see a solid victory.
With Lodge, it’s far to say, the opposite is true.
Lodge has always considered himself a tough guy, although his choice of opponent in the past left a little to be desired.
Originally published as Paul Kent: It took Payne Haas and Tino Fa’asumaleaui fisticuffs to make fans feel invested in Origin II
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