Would a shorter premiership season help the State of Origin cause?
Yes. The premiership season consists of 22 rounds, yet this number is a relic of the VFL, when there were 12 teams which played each other twice. It has little significance in today’s competition. What about introducing a 20-round season? This results in every team playing each other once and another five teams twice. And over the following two seasons, that club would play the other 10 teams an extra time, meaning over a three-year cycle, every team plays each other twice. When is it best to play State of Origin? That is the most difficult question to answer. Some people would argue for a pre-season competition, some would want it during the season and some at the season’s end. It is a conundrum and all would require compromises for the good of the game. If a four- or three-week series was played, it must be staged either as a pre-season competition or broken into two series during the premiership season. It would be a massive compromise for clubs to have the series played as a four-w
