NSW great Paul Gallen has urged organisers to return State of Origin to its traditional mid-season window next year, bemoaning that tonight's Adelaide opener had been "lost" amid Melbourne Cup fever.
Origin has been tacked on to the end of the NRL season this year due to COVID-19 wreaking havoc with the schedule.
It makes an already demanding rugby league calendar even tougher on Origin players, a point Gallen stressed to 2GB's WWOS radio.
"This is hopefully the first and last time that it's played at the end of the season," the former Blues captain said.
"It's so hard on these players. Origin, in itself, is a season.
"The three games they play are just so mentally and physically draining.
"And to do it at the end of the season, after 18 games straight – a lot of them, some of them played up to grand final – it's such a big ask on them.
"You throw in all the rest of it, the racing and coming into summer – yeah, I agree it's lost."
The state of the pandemic in Australia, and development of a coronavirus vaccine, will likely determine next year's fixture list.
But if at all possible Gallen said Origin needed to be played mid-season amid fears an understrength Queensland will be swept away by a blue wave this year.
"Hopefully COVID settles down a little bit next year and we get back to normal and we play it in the middle of the season when everyone's fresh and they can pick their best side," Gallen said.
"Queensland have got three or four guns out of this side and that's going to make a huge difference to them.
"Had they had guys like Kalyn Ponga in the side, it's a different story.
"But they don't have them and hopefully next year it's played back in the middle of the season where it belongs."
from WWOS https://ift.tt/360HXlo
No comments:
Post a Comment