Origin roadshow to roll on
THE NRL has refused to guarantee that Brisbane or Sydney will in future host a second State of Origin game in a series.
This comes after the NRL announced yesterday it had sold off an Origin game to the South Australian Government, which paid as much as $8 million to host a game at the Adelaide Oval in 2020.
The NRL will take Origin matches to the MCG this year, Perth’s 60,000 Optus Stadium next year and the 53,500capacity Adelaide Oval in 2020.
Wally Lewis, Queensland’s “King’’ of Origin, said he could see there were compelling financial reasons for taking the games outside NSW and Queensland, especially after the payments bounty players reaped last year, raising their total wages by 52 per cent.
But he said Origin players still wanted most to play for their state in Brisbane or Sydney. The NRL refused to confirm or deny if the practice of selling off one game a year would extend beyond 2020.
“The NRL has confirmed the next three-year cycle of State of Origin matches. There has been no confirmation beyond that,’’ a spokesman said.
The three “frontier’’ states for the code will be encouraged to bid again and the NRL would welcome the NSW or Queensland Governments entering the process.