Rugby League – State of Origin is not the NRL

I remember those games fondly. Even the games where Queensland won.

I remember watching my old man yell at a player on the television to “pin his ears back!” as he made a break or to “belt him!” if the Blues were defending.

But most of all, I remember how different State of Origin football was compared to the weekly standard of the Winfield Cup competition.

The players were allowed to play, and the tougher the contest got, the more they and we enjoyed it.

I have to remember all of those things because none of them exist anymore.

The Winfield Cup has been replaced by the Telstra Premiership.

State of Origin has been sanitised so much so that it is difficult to tell the difference between a modern NRL game and what was once considered the pinnacle of the game of Rugby League.

And my old man doesn’t yell at the TV anymore.

He can barely watch an NRL game these days.

Even Origin gets turned off halfway through the game as he can’t stand watching it.

I persevere in the hope that things will get better, and we get back to making State of Origin the gladiatorial contest that we fell in love with all those years ago.

Hope springs eternal, as they say.

There has always been a blurring of the lines between the NRL (or NSWRL competition back in the day) and State of Origin football.

Playing Origin has always been considered to be an honour and a privilege. It is held in high esteem.

Yet, the powers that be consider one State of Origin game with the same weighting as one NRL game when it comes to the Match Review Committee and the judiciary.

We have the same arguments when the finals and Grand Final come around.

Look no further than Justin Hodges in last year’s grand final.

But the fact is this, one State of Origin game is not the same as one NRL game.

A grand final is not the same as an ordinary NRL game either.

But it is much easier, and convenient, to look at all of these games as the same thing.

It doesn’t mean it’s right though.

Cronulla’s Wade Graham is the latest to feel the sting of this great injustice.

You see, Graham had a mixed night on Monday night.

His Sharks defeated the reigning premiers, the North Queensland Cowboys, in a hard-fought, physical game. Graham was right in the thick of it, as usual.

The style of play that the Sharks enjoy caused a few problems for the Cowboys. Especially their halfback Johnathan Thurston.

“JT” may well be the best player in the world and possibly one of the best of all time, but even he found things very uncomfortable in the middle.

His time and space were taken from him by the rampaging sharks forwards.

This would be something that the NSW Blues will need to replicate if they are to be victorious next Wednesday night.

Funnily enough, when the Blues announced their team for Origin Two, Graham just happened to have his name read out.

All good so far.

But then the 63rd minute of the game came along.

Thurston received the ball in the middle of a backline movement, and as they had done throughout the first half, the Cronulla defence attacked the backline to minimise time and space for the dangerous Cowboys outside backs and halves.

Graham attacked Thurston. Thurston reacted by shuffling to his inside in the hope of eluding Graham.

Instead, Graham hit Thurston in a tackle where his arm ended up under Thurston's chin.

Graham’s night and subsequent days have taken a definite downturn since.

Debate has, and will continue, to rage about the legality of the tackle and what “grade” the offence should have received, if any.

That isn’t the point though.

The point is that this tackle shouldn’t be enough to stop Wade Graham from making his State of Origin debut next week.

It shouldn’t be enough to stop a player from playing in a grand final.

But this is the NRL’s world that we live in, and they don’t see things that way. 

I’m not even convinced he deserves to be suspended from a normal NRL match for this, let alone Origin.

A penalty was awarded, the tackled player played on and the tackle was not put on report.

Considering what we have already witnessed this season, not to mention the “slap on the wrist” punishments to some offences, Graham’s tackle on Thurston should have been forgotten about after the 64th minute of the game.

Yet, here we are talking about a player’s State of Origin debut being in jeopardy because of a misdemeanour.

Talk about the punishment not fitting the crime.

But, do you want to know what the ironic thing is in all of this?

If Graham had made the same kind of tackle back in the 80’s and 90’s in the State of Origin arena, we wouldn’t have batted an eyelid. It was what was expected.

But in 2016, the same thing will more than likely cost him the opportunity of playing an Origin game.

We’re supposed to live in a progressive society. But in many ways, the NRL just keeps going backwards.

And unfortunately for the rest of us, the laws of common sense no longer apply.

This article first appeared on TopBetta HERE