Paul Kent: NSW Blues and Queensland Maroons need to fire up to arrest State of Origin slide
State of Origin thrives on a little bit of hate, it fuels the hype, but these days the players are discouraged from causing a stir in the opposition camp and the game is poorer for it, writes PAUL KENT.
NRL
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So on Monday the Speaker of the House, the Honourable Daly Cherry-Evans, was attempting to explain Queensland’s five-year drought in NSW and it quickly became apparent, at least for the Maroons, there was no better man for the explaining.
Cherry-Evans took whatever heat there was in something that could have provided a bit of fire and motivation for Origin fans, which might bring some eyeballs, and he put the cooler on it.
“Every Origin is an opportunity,” he said. “You just want to go out and play your best.
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“We had a good opportunity last year and it didn’t work out, this is a new year and a new opportunity.
“All the stats that you guys have to play around with and build up these stories, yes that’s great because that builds Origin, but honestly, it’s all about just going out there and coming together and playing good footy.”
At this point, several acclaimed members of the media suffered severe brain freeze, suddenly struck with an acute case of boredom, even as in the background a chorus of ayes from the QRL’s communications department outweighed the few nays in the House.
It is not Cherry-Evans’ fault.
It is not even Queensland’s fault or NSW’s fault.
Players are actively discouraged nowadays to talk down and disregard any comment, statistic, slur or slanderous allegation that might somehow inflict a little interest in the Origin series.
For years now the overall narrative around Origin has been the same as the year before, with only dates and names changed, and it lumbers forward with few players interested in arresting the slide.
This, as the RLPA begin negotiations to restore the Origin match payments back to $30,000 per player, per game, which is up from the 50 per cent paycut negotiated during Covid.
There hasn’t been a quote worth preserving since Paul Gallen, on the record, called Queenslanders “two heads”. It was only later that Gallen revealed it was in response to the NRL’s “no punching” campaign several years earlier and the NRL privately paid him $20,000 to inflict some venom in the lead-up.
Now, they slumber.
This taming of Origin began many years ago when the hatred between the two States was palpable and genuine.
It is enough to concern the NRL.
“We have been talking about it and thinking about it and trying to create platforms with both players and coaches speaking about it,” NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo said.
“I don’t think we have landed the silver bullet.”
They certainly have not.
Abdo said this was the reason behind the NRL’s attempt some years back to produce a behind the scenes documentary like the Netflix Formula 1 doco, Drive To Survive, which has delivered the sport millions of new fans around the world.
Naturally, though, the backwards thinkers at the two State leagues, driven by the coaching staffs, and a playing group that wants to do only the minimum asked to promote the game, rejected it.
They could not possibly have the sanctity of their boring dressing rooms polluted with a camera revealing they actually do not like each other or that they might not all be the distinguished citizens we are led to believe.
“Drive to Survive allowed people to understand that drivers don’t like each other and that the owners can be a little eccentric,” Abdo said.
“It brought people in who wouldn’t normally watch it.”
Not for rugby league apparently, though. They just want their payrise, no obligation given.
The evidence for this is in the downward decline of State of Origin ratings, which Abdo tried to massage with changing viewing audiences, like those who watch on streaming devices, and the move to a Sunday Origin game.
Truth is there is the odd bump, like when a decider comes along, but overall the trend is travelling south and for the most, the State leagues are doing little to change it.
Measure that against what George Kambosos Jr did last weekend in Melbourne.
Few sports understand the importance of genuine emotion in the selling of a sport than boxing. If somebody was to put a match to my toes and demand an answer I believe this is because boxers see the direct correlation between how many eyeballs a fighter can bring to a fight and the money he receives soon after.
The NRL players don’t have this. They have guaranteed incomes, insulated by sponsors and memberships, gate takings and salary caps, so they get the same cash whether they sell the game to two million fans or just forty drunks in a pub.
Kambosos was basically unknown in Australia, outside of the hardened boxing fans, before he began the campaign to promote his unification fight in Melbourne last weekend. He had not fought in Australia, to develop a local following, since December 2016.
Yet despite Kambosos living in Sydney, he drew 41,000 fans to Melbourne and sold enough pay-per-views to command a $10 million purse.
Barely a dollar was guaranteed to him, so every single word he uttered in the promotion was worth thousands for him.
Origin was once the new frontier and, like all frontiersmen, it came with an untamed edge.
The animosity was enough that it reached homes the club games failed to reach and, on the back of it, the game grew.
The players genuinely hated each other, enough they could barely talk when they gathered for Australian teams.
But what happens now Origin is shrinking?
When will somebody admit the problems and take ownership?
When do the players accept their role?
Given that nothing motivates like self-interest perhaps it needs to be sold that the current Origin player is costing himself a motza down the line.
Every year a cottage industry flourishes around the Origin period of former Origin players hitting the luncheon circuit, revisiting old war stories of camps and campaigns, some that can cause a little flushing of the earlobes to the sitting audience, and they are happy to do it because it puts their children through school.
The modern day player will have nothing to talk about beyond recalling how they got through their sets and followed processes, and the deep brain freeze currently being suffered among the news gatherers will be inflicted on the sitting audience.
And it could be fatal.
If not for the game itself, which is a consideration, somebody at the luncheon forced to endure this could feel compelled to push a butter knife into their chest.
Can we have an aye for that?
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