THE RL1908 BLOG

News, Reviews & Opinion - Sean Fagan - RL1908.com

Mid May in 2008 has seen calls for State of Origin football to be held on stand-alone weekends. Is it a good idea?

The free weekend for Origin football was tried in 2001 - Origin was played on Sunday nights.

It was a dismal failure.

All weekend radio was full of fans whinging that they had no footy to watch on Fri night or Sat arvo/night or Sun arvo while waiting for Sunday night to roll around.

It also gave a free kick to AFL and rugby union to get larger match reports on the news and newspapers.

Nor did the Sydney crowd for Origin 2 get near capacity, despite there being no club football - 70,249.

Nor did it help crowds at club matches in Sydney in the following week after each Origin - despite not getting any footy during the Origin weekends, the next week produced crowds at Sydney matches that were hardly brilliant...

Origin 1 in Brisbane - Lang Park (last game at the old ground) 38,909 - Sydney crowds the next weekend (rd 12): Sharks v Bulldogs 11,218 (Fri night @ Shark Park) / Nthn Eagles v Parramatta 11,439 (Sat night @ Brookvale) / Wests Tigers v Penrith 7,432 (Sat night @ Campbelltown).

Origin 2 at (now) ANZ in Sydney - 70,249 - Sydney crowds the next weekend (rd 16): Roosters v Cowboys 6,432 (Sat night @ SFS) / Nthn Eagles v Penrith 7,236 (Sun arvo @ Brookvale).

Origin 3 at QEII in Brisbane - 49,441 - Sydney crowds the next weekend (rd 18): Bulldogs v Penrith 8,217 (Sun arvo @ Showground) / Roosters v Nthn Eagles 10,417 (Sun arvo @ SFS).

Admittedly there appears to be some dreadful scheduling going on in 2001, and I haven't checked the weather for those weekends, but there appears to be little evidence to support the theory that stopping club football will be a success for Origin, nor for the clubs themselves.