Sporting Declaration: How to make State of Origin state of the art

For 41 years, Sporting Declaration has maintained a love-hate relationship with Origin.

I love the concept of the best players beating each other to a pulp as two entire states hold their breath.

I love the tradition of Origin, the timeless memories it has provided over the years.

I love the remarkable skill, the big hits, the controversies, the heroic feats that earn pages in the game's folklore and the massive roar from full stadiums every time the warriors enter the arena.

I love pretending I'm a selector and choosing my best 17 for each state, before the squads are announced.

I love how people who normally don't have the faintest interest in footy get caught up in the banter.

I love the annual clamouring by the Cane Toads for underdog status, without which their heads would surely implode before any match kicks off.

And I love the satisfaction of knowing those poor, simple folk north of the border are crying in their XXXX whenever the Blues win.

But there is a flip side to State of Origin that annoys me. I hate how it undermines and overshadows the rest of the NRL season.

Year in, year out, the best clubs are weakened for two or three games every year by being forced to field teams minus their interstate stars, and mediocrity is rewarded when the teams least impacted by Origin flum a couple of wins against depleted opposition.

When a player suffers a long-term injury in Origin, the club who pay him a large chunk of their salary cap have to deal with the consequences.

Meanwhile, the NRL keep tossing up split rounds featuring half-strength teams, and everyone loses a bit of interest.

Origin is a great concept. The envy of every other footballing code in Australia.

But Ronaldo Mulitalo has reminded me that, in more ways than one, perhaps Origin needs an overhaul.

Mulitalo, of course, was cruelly denied an Origin debut for the Maroons this week after it was revealed the New Zealand-born winger did not comply with eligibility criteria, despite having played at junior representative level for Queensland.

The sticking point, it seems, is he did not arrive in Queensland until he was almost 14, and one of the Origin eligibility rules apparently requires a player to reside in either state before their 13th birthday.

So for the sake of a few months, Mulitalo missed out. Does that mean any young kid who arrives in Australia after the age of 13 is ineligible to play State of Origin? How ridiculous.

NSW might argue they're tired of turning a blind eye to the likes of Greg Inglis running around in a Maroons jersey, or Tonie Carroll, who somehow played for Queensland and New Zealand in the same season - before representing Australia a few years later.

But the real issue, for mine, is not whether Queensland are (again) trying to rort the system.

The main dilemma is that the demographic of NRL players has changed.

Around 50 per cent of players are now of Polynesian background, and many were born in New Zealand or the Pacific Islands before joining NRL clubs on scholarships as teenagers.

Many then represent their adopted states at under-age level and even the Junior Kangaroos. But if the Mulitalo issue has set a precedent, where does that leave them all now?

Moreover, there are born-and-bred Aussies like NSW five-eighth Jarome Luai, who reportedly intends to play for Samoa at international level, rather than wear the green and gold.

It's just a confusing mess, yet perhaps that can be the catalyst for monumental change.

The solution could be as simple as including a third team in Origin, Oceania, representing the Pacific Islands.

Each team would play each other once - NSW v Queensland, Oceania v NSW and Queensland v Oceania - and the top two would meet in a final.

And if you were in any doubt about how strong an Oceania team would be, just run your eyes over this hypothetical line-up: Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Maika Sivo, Justin Olam, Joey Manu, Jamayne Isaako, Benji Marshall (c), Jahrome Hughes, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Brandon Smith, Jesse Bromwich, Viliame Kikau, Sitili Tupounuia, Jason Taumalolo. Bench: Dylan Brown, Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Addin Fonua-Blake, James Fisher-Harris.

I reckon they would be more than a match for the Blues and Maroons and give the series a whole new dimension.

Rather than looking to exclude such champions from the game's ultimate arena, perhaps we should welcome them.

Players who chose to represent Oceania would then be ineligible to play for NSW, Queensland and Australia but would instead play Test football for their nations of heritage.

Taking matches to cities such as Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and even Port Moresby and Suva would potentially open up whole new markets for rugby league.

And remember it would be a four-game series every year, instead of three, which should increase revenue accordingly.

Worth a shot? As was the case when State of Origin kicked off way back in 1980, maybe we'll need to lose interest in beating up the Cane Toads first.

IN THE NEWS:

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: