DISCORD 2012: Edition 21

by NRL

OK a few words on last night: Michael Jennings deserved to be sent to the sin bin and Greg Bird deserved to be penalised for the lifting tackle on Cooper Cronk.

As for the Greg Inglis try, I need to look at it again after hearing the explanation for it. It seemed like a bad call on face value but maybe it was just a brave one.

Paul Gallen made it clear in his comments to the referees that he thought Origin was supposed to be controlled differently and he was angered when it was not.

Last week, when I asked Bill Harrigan if you could get away with more in interstate football, he refused to give a yes or no.

These sort of wish-washy grey areas do not stand up to scrutiny. In all areas of life, things are becoming more black and white, definite. Origin is no different.

The mysterious different set of rules Origin has been run under were on borrowed time. Maybe last night in Melbourne, their time was up.

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EVERY year when State of Origin comes around, we are reminded of one of the series' biggest flaws: no-one is running it.

The situation with standby reserves has got ridiculous. Manly coach Geoff Toovey said last week he wasn't 100 per cent sure where Daly Cherry-Evans was, while NSW called up Tariq Sims and Aaron Woods a few hours before Sims was due to play for his club.

The ultimate conclusion of it all, we saw signs of last year when NSW coach Ricky Stuart asked his players to pull out of their club teams before the decider. We will also soon see a player miss a club game because he is part of an extended squad and then also miss the cut in Origin.

The answer is simple: first, find someone to run Origin. Then, introduce a rule under which one emergency reserve can be with the team for the duration of the camp - before returning to his club for the weekend - and another can join after the preceding round of club football.

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FEEDBACK time and Sea Eagle of Brisbane, your comments were hilarious. Of course Billy's idea is unworkable but I would like to see NRL players involved in Tests paid the same regardless of which (full member RLIF) country they represent. This would at least help arrest the brawn drain a little. The game at Leichhardt was on Friday.

Mike, I think people should look at the increased pay for players as a percentage of Origin's earnings, not a figure. It's easy to say 'they don't deserve $50,000 a game' but what percentage of Origin's total profits do they deserve?

Stephen, the deal between the AMNRL and Grand Prix can only be good. We report in Rugby League Week today that peace talks with the USARL have not kicked off too. The PNGRL are in talks with the QRL about entering a team in the Intrust Super Cup but there's been no decision yet. It would work based on government funding ? simple as that.

Col asked about development of rugby league outside the heartlands in the UK. There have been some good junior numbers but plenty of people believe expansion has failed and always will. Hearing Louis McCartney-Scarsbrook's accent suggests otherwise to me.

Knight Vision spoke about the old chestnut of a Pacific Allstars side. That's a good idea as long as those players then have to stick with their Pacific nations and can't just go back to Australia or New Zealand.

Roml375 said there should be three stand-alone weekends around Origin, with internationals on those weekends. Sadly, Australian broadcasters don't want to show internationals ? and if they don't want to show them, the NRL won't schedule them'

Sea Eagle, I said we should be going to the big ground when we outgrow the suburban grounds, which has not happened yet. I don't see how that conflicts with me going to the footy on a night off. I actually believe that in about 1000 years, we will have no body contact sport at all. We will look back upon rugby league as barbaric, the way we now look back upon the gladiators. But in the meantime, I plan to enjoy it.

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