NRL snub for Origin low blow

THE year 2020 will be Townsville’s time to shine.

It will mark the opening of the North Queensland Stadium and, all going to plan, Townsville City Council’s vision for the city should be well advanced.

And what better way to celebrate the opening of a new $ 250 million asset deep in the middle of the rugby league heartland than with a State of Origin match right here in North Queensland?

The tourism windfall of putting Townsville on the national stage would have been massive and the opportunity for North Queensland rugby league fans to watch the pinnacle of their game would have been too good to miss.

Both political parties during the 2017 state election campaign promised to try to help get this remaining game to Townsville, but it seems with the NRL cold hard cash is more important than sentiment.

The NRL will play its third 2020 State of Origin game in Adelaide in that great rugby league state of South Australia, which — by the way — hasn’t even had a rugby league franchise since the Adelaide Rams. That team played its first season in 1997 and folded the very next year.

The NRL argues moving State of Origin interstate will help it grow rugby league across the country.

In 2019, Western Australia will host its first State of Origin game, with the WA government reportedly spending several million dollars to attract the nation’s biggest rivalry to play at the Perth Stadium.

Regional Queenslanders are raised on rugby league.

It gives hope and purpose to young kids in remote communities. Parents will drive hours every weekend to ensure their child gets a game and it’s a rite of passage for youngsters to dream of one day pulling on that maroon jersey.

But the passion of State of Origin isn’t something that can be manufactured, packaged and sold to a foreign crowd and it’s abhorrent that the NRL is trying to do so.