Bruising Origin is an

Coaching great Wayne Bennett has come up with an alternative, but will the NRL listen?

QUEENSLAND star Johnathan Thurston has pleaded with rugby league’s powerbrokers to finally stop the madness of players backing up for clubs just days after State of Origin, saying the expectations placed on the game’s biggest stars had become ‘‘borderline ridiculous’’.

The sheer brutality and unmatched injury toll of Origin I rekindled the annual scheduling debate, but for many senior players it feels like Groundhog Day. Coaching great Wayne Bennett was so concerned he approached the NRL’s head of football, Todd Greenberg, with an alternative plan to spare the combatants.

The issue has hardly subsided ss both sides head into game two in Sydney with Thurston wondering whether anybody was listening to the pleas of players and pressing the NRL to seriously explore new models, such as Bennett’s, which would see the three-game series played within the space of a month and ensure a minimum seven-day break for rep players.

Thurston has been vocal on the issue since game one, partly because the boundaries had been shifted by a ruthless Origin that produced an unprecedented number of serious injuries.

‘‘I’ve never been a part of such a brutal game before. That was probably one of the fastest games I’ve been involved with . . . and brutal. When you’ve got to back up for your club a few days later, it’s tough work. Everyone has to do it. Surely there’s a better solution,’’ Thurston said.

‘‘It certainly is [ridiculous]. After being a part of game one and seeing how much interest it brought around the nation and around the world, to be backing