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Moaners missing the point: Why Sunday Origin’s a winner

FORGET the whingers and the laments about ratings. Sunday’s State of Origin experiment was far from a disaster.

Debbie SchippDebbie Schipp
2 min read
June 26, 2018 - 4:17PM
While whingers let loose on social media, the NRL was celebrating the Sunday night game along with Blues players. Picture: Dan Himbrechts/AAP
While whingers let loose on social media, the NRL was celebrating the Sunday night game along with Blues players. Picture: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

IF you listened to the social media whiners, holding a State of Origin match on a Sunday night in Sydney was a disaster.

“It started too late”, they lamented. “It’s past the kids’ bedtime,” they carped. “I can’t enjoy a beer because I have to work tomorrow,” they griped. Others didn’t want an earlier start: “Sunday should be family day”, they groaned.

The whingers were out in force but amid the moaning — most of it factually wide of the mark — Origin II was a win and not just for the NSW team.

While it slipped slightly in those all-important TV ratings, the match was a success for the NRL and those who were actually at it.

Traditionally a midweek Origin fixture is a slower sell to fill Sydney’s ANZ stadium.

Up in Queensland, Origin is always pretty much a quick stadium sellout — due both to the smaller size of Suncorp Stadium, and Queenslanders’ undeniable passion for the clash.

The NRL this year took control of its match scheduling without having to oblige Channel 9, and made Origin II a stand-alone Sunday event. It proved a win on the ground.

On Sunday night, without fans being troubled by the distractions of finishing work and joining the crush of workday commuters to head to Sydney Olympic Park, 50,0000 punters boarded trains to ANZ to swell the full house crowd to 82,223.

And while it didn’t rake in the ratings Nine traditionally pulls from a midweek Origin match, it was far from a disaster.

Ratings were down about 12 per cent compared to this year’s Wednesday night Origin I, but the match was still the most-watched show of the night drawing in an average 3.179 million viewers in five-city metropolitan and regional markets. The only bigger show on TV this year was Origin I, with 3.456 million.

But it’s the complaints about start times that really don’t wash, and border on hilarious.

Those bellyaching about the “late start” on a Sunday seemed to forget Wednesday night Origin matches usually start 20 minutes later than the match did on Sunday. People, moaned about that too — after missing the start.

Arguments about not being able to get the beers in during the match because suddenly, Origin is scheduled on a “school night”, also proved patently ridiculous. For most fans, work has followed Origin games on Thursdays, just like it did on Monday.

Nine freely admits it would like to see all Origin matches back on a Wednesday night where it would be an easier ratings grabber, untroubled by of rival reality show formats on a Sunday which took viewers eyes elsewhere last weekend.

Full house: A packed ANZ Stadium ahead of the Sunday night’s kick-off. Picture: AAP/Craig Golding
Full house: A packed ANZ Stadium ahead of the Sunday night’s kick-off. Picture: AAP/Craig Golding

The network plans to raise the issue with the NRL, push for a returns to all-midweek Origin matches, and the NRL says it will listen.

It might even consider an earlier Sunday start — perhaps a more family-friendly 4pm kick-off.

The last time Origin games were played on Sunday nights was back in 2001 in a vastly different TV landscape.

The fact is, whether Origin keeps one match on a Sunday or returns to its midweek hunting ground of more than two decades, last weekend’s experiment wasn’t the disaster it’s been made out to be.

Except, of course, if you’re a Queenslander.

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Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/state-of-origin/moaners-missing-the-point-why-sunday-origins-a-winner/news-story/9a9b4ae393b3db8adeb65a3282abc5c9