Origin to highest bidder

THE NRL will not 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 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 Melbourne Cricket Ground this year, Perth’s 60,000 Optus Stadium next year and the 53,500- capacity Adelaide Oval in 2020.

Wally Lewis, Queensland’s “King’’ of Origin, said he could see there were compelling financial reasons for taking the attractions outside NSW and Queensland. But he said Origin players still wanted to play 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,’’ the 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.

But successive Queensland governments have opposed a fee to host a second Origin match. The state hosted two last year at Suncorp Stadium.

Asked how growing league as a game was achieved by taking an Origin game to Austra- lia’s smallest state mainland capital, an NRL spokesman said: “With support from the South Australian Government for State of Origin, money which will be generated from playing Origin in Adelaide will flow back into the game.

“There are also challenges around stadium availability in Sydney during this period.

“We want to continue to grow the series and taking it to Adelaide in 2020 will enable us to reach people who may not have watched Origin previously.’’

Lewis said he did not blame the NRL for “trying to cash in”.

“The Queensland players would say they’d prefer to play a game in Sydney than somewhere like Adelaide, because the feeling surrounding the game in Sydney would be more intense,’’ Lewis said.

“I can understand why the NRL are doing it. The question is, are we getting away from what Origin has been since 1980 – a game between two states and we play home or we play away, but we get a chance to show what Origin football means to us? That can’t be reproduced when we play in Melbourne or in America ( the 1987 exhibition match in California).’’

The NRL said a Queensland government had never offered to pay to bring a second game to Brisbane.

NRL CEO Todd Greenberg last year would not rule out selling an Origin game to an Asian city such as Singapore or Hong Kong, or to Auckland.

Melbourne is expected to bid for another match at the MCG in 2021.