STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE SHOULD BE THE BEST OF SIX AND THE BRISBANE BRONCOS SHOULD BE KILLED

Although I am not the world's biggest rugby league fan, I have to say that I do admire the sport for being one of the most grassroots
of them all, it will always remain a sport of the working class man.

 

Before the Brisbane Broncos came along, the Brisbane competition, with teams such as Wynnum-Manly, Valleys, Easts and Brothers having players of the calibre of people such as Wally Lewis, Gene Miles, Greg Dowling and Arthur Beetson on their books, the competition certainly did not need any injection of Sydney based players who were playing in the New South Wales rugby league competition.

Although the Broncos was a financial windfall for the NSWRL and an opportunity for Brisbane league fans to be part of the more celebrated Sydney-centric big time, the new franchise spelled financial doom for the Brisbane competition. 

The Broncos came about in 1988, I thought while I was writing a blog about World Expo `88 and what negative effect its conclusion had on Brisbane sub-culture I thought I would share my views on what effect the advent of the Broncos had on destroying the grassroots rugby league culture in Brisbane and regional Queensland. 

Even though the annual State of Origin series still retains some of the old magic of yesteryear, from the night when Arthur Beetson ran onto Lang Park in 1980 for his first and only origin match.

In the post `88 and post Broncos era, any league fan wouldn't be honest if they said that Origin footy had not lost some of its shine and panache since before 1988. 

My attention span for watching rubgy league ends at State of Origin, I always watch the three annual games but I rarely watch club footy. But I still respect the game for providing kids in the suburbs something better to do than walking around shopping malls on the weekends or painting graffiti on railway station walls. 

If we want rugby league to survive in Brisbane then we cannot rely on a few big ticket Broncos games to keep the sport healthy at the grassroots level with local teams. 

Some of the Brisbane clubs are still going okay but how would they be if there wasn't any poker machines propping them up? 

Any footy club who cant survive on the basis of gate payers to games without the need for poker machines and chook raffles is not in a good financial position, regardless of your views on poker machines. 

I think the time has come where instead of expanding the code and plonking two NRL teams in Brisbane if anything the Broncos should be given the arse. 

In place of the Broncos I believe there should be six origin matches a year in place of three and the Brisbane and Sydney competitions should go back to being seperate from the other. 

In other words, I am saying that Origin footy is a lot more exciting than club footy, and it should become the showpiece instead of the Broncos. I may not be welcome at Red Hill.