2024 Origin series: NRL rejects schedule push, Maroons face back-to-back away games

The first key element of the NRL’s season draw for 2024 has been revealed and the Maroons are big losers on paper, writes PETER BADEL.

The NRL has rejected Wayne Bennett’s push for a shortened State of Origin schedule as Queensland coach Billy Slater faces a daunting task winning a hat-trick of interstate titles next season.

This masthead can reveal the first key element of the NRL’s season draw for 2024, with League bosses retaining the six-week Origin format, despite pressure from several club CEOs – and super coach Bennett – to cut the series to four weeks.

The 2024 Origin draw shapes as a gruelling assignment for Slater’s Maroons, who must overcome a horror record at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to celebrate a Penrith-style ‘Three-Peat’.

New Blues coach Michael Maguire will make his debut on home soil in the series opener, with NSW slated to host Queensland in Game One at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on Wednesday, June 5.

Next year’s neutral venue – the Melbourne Cricket Ground – will stage Origin II on Wednesday, June 26, before Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium is the scene of Game Three on Wednesday, July 17.

That means Slater’s two-time defending champions Queensland will have to play back-to-back away games before enjoying the home comforts of Suncorp for the final match of the 2024 series.

The 2024 Origin draw favours NSW – on paper. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

Slater has proved a super coach at Origin level, winning the 2022 and 2023 series since succeeding Paul Green, and the Maroons legend is primed to subject NSW to a third consecutive campaign of misery.

But the 2024 Origin calendar is as tough as it gets for the Maroons, who won the opener in Adelaide last year before wrapping up the series in Game Two at Suncorp.

Adding to the challenge for Queensland, the world-famous MCG has become a bogey ground for the Maroons.

Queensland have lost four of five matches at the iconic 100,000-capacity stadium, with NSW having won the last three straight (15-14 in 1997, 26-18 in 2015 and 22-12 in 2018) _ plus the inaugural game in Melbourne, 14-0, in 1994.

The Maroons’ only win at the MCG was a 20-12 triumph during the famous 1995 series ‘Blue-rinse’, turning up the heat on Queensland to snap a near 30-year Origin drought at the hallowed ground.

Earlier this season, NRL club bosses raised the prospect of a four-week Origin calendar in 2024 to allay fears of player burnout and minimise disruption to the Telstra Premiership.

That proposal had the backing of the code’s greatest coach Bennett, who has devised his own scheduling model that could see State of Origin completed within 30 days.

But the NRL is maintaining the status quo to maximise coverage of the code’s $100 million showpiece event.

Bennett, who has had four stints as Queensland coach spanning 34 years, is adamant the six-week Origin season is too damaging to the NRL.

Wayne Bennett’s Origin idea has been knocked back.

“We need a four-week Origin period,” Bennett told News Corp in September.

“The 2020 series (during Covid) was so enjoyable, we were together for three weeks and had the best time as a group.

“Six weeks is too long and it takes a huge toll on the clubs and players.

“They can have a 10-day period leading into Origin I and then for Origin II and III you have a seven-day break between games.

“It’s the hardest preparing for Game One, but seven days is long enough for the other two games.”

Queensland skipper Daly Cherry-Evans played in the hit-and-run, three-week campaign during the Covid-affected Origin series in 2020 and has backed the traditional six-week format.

“I love it the way it is,” he said.

“Our camps are really enjoyable, we have a great group and great coaching staff, the QRL really look after us so I love the time I spend in camp.

“I don’t want it to change.

“If anything they could shorten the NRL season, that could work.

“In 2020, I hadn’t played finals, so I had to wait five weeks to play and going into an Origin game without a game in that time was bloody hard. I remember how sore I was the next day.

“If we moved Origin to the end of the year, that would affect international football.

“I don’t know what the perfect answer is but hopefully they don’t affect Origin too much because it keeps me fresh, it gives me new ideas and I love playing for Queensland, so I have the best of both worlds.”

Originally published as 2024 Origin series: NRL rejects schedule push, Maroons face back-to-back away games