Buzz: City-Country should no longer figure on the league landscape

BUZZ: Gorden Tallis is a typical Queenslander. He loves City v Country — as long as it’s the Blues risking injury, not his beloved Maroons.

GORDEN Tallis is a typical Queenslander. He tells us every year how much he loves City v Country.

As long as it’s the Blues risking injuries and not his beloved Maroons.

My question for Tallis is, if the concept is so good, why don’t Brisbane Origin play Queensland Country Origin? Play the game in Rockhampton, Ipswich, Toowoomba or Cairns.

They would love to see Ben Barba, Anthony Milford, Lachlan Maranta, ­Justin Hodges, Andrew McCullough, Brent Tate, Dave Taylor, Ben Hunt and Martin Kennedy in town for the weekend.

News_Rich_Media: Andrew Fifita admits he faces a tough time proving he is worthy of retaining his NSW Blues jumper and will use this weekend's City v Country Origin clash to stake his claim.

Oh, that’s right. The Maroons have won eight straight without staging this meaningless lead-up game and risking injuries to their Origin ­hopefuls. They are too smart to play this game.

All the players I’ve mentioned above will do nothing this weekend apart from sit back, recover and treat niggling injuries.

NINE INJURED — ARE BLUES CURSED?

If Mal Meninga needs them during Origin, they will have benefited from the rest.

On the other hand, what if Josh Reynolds, Jarrod Mullen or Adam Reynolds get seriously injured in Dubbo on Sunday? Or any other player for that matter?

News_Image_File: Josh and Adam Reynolds will be hoping to avoid injury in City-Country.

Who will compensate their clubs, their members, their fans or their sponsors? I can’t remember who won this game last year or the year before, for that matter. I’m all for the promotion of bush football but City v Country reached its use-by date a decade ago.

Send some trials or premiership games to country towns instead.

Make sure every Sydney club makes one appearance in the bush every year in Dubbo, Tamworth, Wagga, Coffs Harbour and Mudgee.

The NRL premiership was just starting to gain some momentum after a sluggish opening.

Crowds and TV ratings were picking up. We were all talking about the Anzac Day game, the Storm’s slump, the Titans and the Rabbitohs.

News_Rich_Media: Aidan Sezer will miss the chance to impress NSW Origin selectors after being ruled out of the City squad with an ankle injury. He will be replaced by Bulldogs five-eighth Trent Hodkinson.

Then we call it off for two weeks. No NRL between Sunday, April 27, and Friday, May 9.

Nothing on TV except a Kangaroos v New Zealand team that didn’t even pick its biggest drawcards Sonny Bill Williams, Jared Waerea-­Hargreaves or Shaun Kenny-Dowall.

Instead, they’ve gone for a club reject out of NSW Cup and a number of debutants — then wonder why we’re struggling to sell a ticket and will be flat out getting 20,000 to the game.

This all comes back to the NRL draw. If we are to play a Test match it should be after Origin (which used to be a selection trial) or at the end of the season, a couple of weeks after the grand final.

As for City-Country ... don’t listen to Gorden Tallis. It’s had its day.