Sydney to host historic stand-alone Sunday State of Origin game

SYDNEY will host a stand-alone State of Origin match which is set to be played on a Sunday next year with a new family friendly kick-off time.

Sydney will host a stand alone Origin match in 2018. Picture: Brett Costello

SYDNEY will host the historic first stand-alone State of Origin match and the first match in 17 years to be played on a Sunday next year with a new family friendly kick-off time.

NSW will get the chance to play in front of a packed home crowd when ANZ Stadium hosts Origin II on June 24. The match will kick-off at 7.45pm which is 25 minutes earlier than the scheduled 8.10pm starts for Wednesday night matches.

Melbourne will host the opening game of next year’s series on Wednesday June 6 at the MCG while the third game will be played at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday, July 11.

Origin has not been held on a Sunday night since the 2001 series — the only time the games were played on a Sunday. Next year also is the first year of a revamped Origin schedule, with just one split round of NRL matches in a bid to avoid repeated disruptions to the competition.

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NSW celebrate a try by Mitchell Pearce. Picture: Brett Costello

There will be no NRL matches played around the Sunday Origin match, with the regular season reduced from 26 to 25 rounds.

NRL boss Todd Greenberg said the early timeslot would draw more fans in.

“State of Origin was viewed by more than 10 million people on television this year” Greenberg said. “Game three was the top rating show of the year — not just in sport but in any category — with more than 3.6 million viewers nationally.

“But we think the 7.45pm kick off will result in even more people watching Origin 2 next year. It means young fans, especially, will be able to watch the whole game in a family friendly timeslot on a Sunday evening.”

The NRL hope that with one-off matches across three states, venues will be packed out. Tickets for game one go on sale on Wednesday with aims of getting 100,000 people to the game. More than 91,000 watched on when Melbourne last hosted a game in 2015.

Blatchys Blues during game two at ANZ Stadium. Picture: Dylan Robinson

“We expect more than 200,000 fans to attend the three games with millions more watching on TV,” Greenberg said. “So State of Origin in 2018 has the potential to break all records — at the ground and on television.”

The NRL has already announced that an Origin match will be held in Perth in 2019. Game Two will be held in the new Perth Stadium but Greenberg stressed that NSW and Queensland would always stage at least one game each year — with only one game taken outside either state.