Phil ‘Buzz’ Rothfield: State of Origin is ruining the integrity of the NRL premiership

The NRL is the only major sport on this planet allows the main competition to be interrupted for almost a third of the season. PHIL ROTHFIELD reveals the only way to protect the integrity of the premiership.

The NRL was missing $123 million worth of talent over the weekend.

That’s 246 players – 36 on State of Origin duty, 119 on bye rounds and 91 either injured or suspended.

Lucky the rookie Roosters, minus five Origin players, were able to flog the Cronulla Sharks in a spectacular performance to save the NRL from embarrassment over the farcical situation we are left with from the impact of Origin every year.

What other major sport on this planet would allow the main competition to be interrupted for almost a third of the season so significantly from rounds 12 to 19.

Your columnist has been banging on about this for 10 years. The clubs have raised it annually at CEO conferences. Yet no one at NRL headquarters wants to listen.

Over the weekend, TV ratings and crowds were down on usual numbers.

I’ve had so many messages from punters saying they didn’t watch on Thursday or Friday night.

The table-topping Bulldogs were destroyed by the Dolphins. Picture: NRL Photos

These are people you would describe as rusted-on rugby league fans. They love the game. It’s their life and their weekends.

They are left to watch competition leader Canterbury, with the best defence in the comp all year but without Stephen Crichton, Max King and Kurt Mann, get flogged 44-8 by the Dolphins.

When Manly plays Parra they want to see Mitch Moses v DCE, not Dean Hawkins v Jacob Arthur.

They love Latrell Mitchell and Nathan Cleary, Stephen Crichton and big Payne Haas, Xavier Coates in the air, Cameron Munster, Harry Grant and so on and so on. They hate not having the 6pm Friday game or a proper Super Saturday with a 3pm kick-off.

Instead, your columnist watched Carlton v GWS in the AFL, then Hawthorn v the Lions, before finally getting my rugby league fix at 5.30pm, albeit having to watch Penrith without five Origin stars.

One mate even switched over to Super Rugby but flicked back when he saw it was a massacre that ended with the Chiefs beating Moana ­Pasifika 85-7.

The Panthers were beaten 25-6 by a Newcastle side that was flat out scoring a try for six previous weeks.

Sure, the Roosters showed what young footy players could do with an opportunity.

They were so brilliant to watch.

But this was a one-off over seven weeks.

In 2023, I interviewed some of the sharpest minds in the game around this Origin scheduling debacle.

Souths CEO Blake Solly said: “The NRL club competition generates 90 per cent of the NRL’s revenues. Yet the focus for almost a third of the season is diverted away from the competition.

“We have pleaded with the NRL for a better schedule for at least five years.”

And super coach Wayne Bennett: “As a club coach I’ve been through every bit of torture and torment with Origin. It’s cost me grand finals.”

Frank Ponissi, the Storm boss: “Our domestic competition is being devalued. Maybe we keep it (Origin) mid-season but stop the competition for three weeks and play some international football on the weekends.”

Wayne Bennett has been a vocal critic of the Origin scheduling. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

And Penrith boss Brian Fletcher on the welfare issues: “Look at the strain on the players with wear and tear. They are human beings, not robots.”

These people are not headline hunters or rent-a-quotes.

They are respected figures who have been around the game for a long time.

Yet nothing ever changes.

Ponissi is on the money when he says the competition should stop for three weeks.

We could fill those weekends with State of Origin and a Tri-­Nations series between Tonga, Samoa and New Zealand. The launch of the NRLW season. The junior Kangaroos against the Kiwis.

This would also protect the integrity of the premiership. As Bennett said, it has cost him premierships.

All we want is eight games on weekends featuring the best players, even if it means taking a three-week break mid-year to achieve that.