How will NRL’s lingering issues impact State of Origin?

Hip drops, set restarts, crusher tackles, concussion protocols, sin bins, and accusations of players taking dives are serious issues facing rugby league just weeks out from its showcase State of Origin series.

Rugby league games have never been more even, as the current NRL ladder confirms, and much of the credit for that must go to the efforts to clean up the ruck, protect the players and speed up the game where possible.

But those changes and adjustments have come at a price with more penalties being blown, more players undergoing head injury assessments (HIAs) and a record number of players spending time in the sin bin, putting sides under immense pressure.

One wonders how all these issues will impact Origin, which everyone knows is a different beast and is refereed a lot differently to NRL games with players given far more liberty to push the boundaries.

In last year’s deciding third Origin battle there were some ferocious collisions, with three players – NSW forward Cameron Murray and Queensland teammates Selwyn Cobbo and Lindsay Collins — forced from the field with head knocks in the opening four minutes of a brutal clash.

After seven NRL rounds (56 matches) we have already seen a staggering 40 players make the trek to the sin bin for a variety of rule breaches, many of them resulting from late contact and contact with the head.

The worst offenders have been the Sydney Roosters with six sin bins, although chief villain Victor Radley makes up for three of those.

Surprisingly, Wayne Bennett’s Dolphins also have had six sin-binnings in seven games, with the Canterbury Bulldogs and North Queensland next with four each.

Competition front-runners Brisbane are yet to have a player binned.

There has been a concerted crackdown on the newest tackle to creep into the game, the ‘hip drop’, which is a major concern because it has the potential to cause serious injury unless it is penalised out of the game quickly.

The first game of this year’s Origin series in Adelaide is just 44 days away, which doesn’t leave a lot of time to resolve some of the issues.

Given what we’ve seen so far, this NRL season the question has to be asked.

Will we see an Origin series this year with less brutality, fewer full-blooded collision, and more emphasis on player safety?

Are you kidding?

This is Origin, this is take no prisoners, this is ‘last man standing’ mentality.

If anything, this season’s series will be faster, tougher, and — if it is humanly possible — even more brutal than last year’s.

What will be interesting, however, is how differently the rules will be applied, because the players certainly will not be holding anything back — that’s what makes Origin so special.

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