{"id":317205,"date":"2023-07-19T03:55:23","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T03:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=317205"},"modified":"2023-07-19T05:59:01","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T05:59:01","slug":"wally-whacks-dangerous-origin-scheduling-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=317205","title":{"rendered":"Wally whacks 'dangerous' Origin scheduling calls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland<\/a> legend Wally Lewis<\/a> has whacked calls to move State of Origin<\/a> to the end of the year permanently, saying the move could be "dangerous" to players who haven't played finals.<\/p>\n

As calls from clubs to shake up the Origin schedule grow louder, Lewis said representative players from clubs who miss the top-eight would have missed well over a month of footy before potentially lining up for Origin.<\/p>\n

Not only would they not be at their best, but he suggested they would also be at greater risk of injury.<\/p>\n

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"The players lose momentum. For the guys who are up there in premiership sides, that are playing Grand Final day or the week before, well then fine," he said on Wide World of Sports' QLDER<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

"But if you haven't played for four or five weeks \u2026 you're not going to be at your best.<\/p>\n

"Certainly there has to be some compensation shown with respect to the judging body there, but I just think it's too dangerous, because not every representative player comes out of finals teams."<\/p>\n

The pandemic forced the 2020 Origin series to be played back-to-back-to-back on consecutive Wednesdays post-season.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

As the ladder currently stands, if the 2023 series was played after the season and the same players picked in each game, 20 players across both sides \u2013 including both captains \u2013 would be picked from clubs outside the top eight.<\/p>\n

Fellow Queensland legend Cameron Smith last week called for the Origin series to be condensed into three weekends<\/a>, and the NRL season paused to form an expanded representative round.<\/p>\n

\"Legends<\/p>\n

He said while Origin could be the headline act each weekend, it could be supported by Tests from the Pacific nations, as well as matches involving Indigenous and Maori sides.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said the NRL could also ensure non-representative players kept up match fitness by implementing a smaller Super League Challenge Cup-style competition that could include NSW and Queensland Cup sides against fully-fledged NRL clubs.<\/p>\n

But Darren Lockyer disagreed, and pointed to the Panthers' round 20 performance against the Dolphins as an example that proves the current system is healthy.<\/p>\n

"Rugby league gets so much coverage over that period, I just think we've gotta make it work the way it is now," he said on QLDER.<\/p>\n

"Penrith rested all their Origin players, they won, and they're still sitting on top of the table, so it's possible to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"Clubs need to \u2026 get their head around it and get better at it."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queensland legend Wally Lewis has whacked calls to move State of Origin to the end of the year permanently, saying the move could be "dangerous" […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":316850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317205"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=317205"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317209,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317205\/revisions\/317209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/316850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=317205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=317205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=317205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}