Calls for a standalone Origin period get louder each year. Here’s the counterargument

June 15, 2026 — 7:30pm

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There’s an annual argument for a stand-alone State of Origin period – putting the regular NRL competition on pause rather than trotting out teams diluted by absences.

When the talent pool is stretched across two additional clubs, that argument will get louder. Over the weekend, on top of the many Origin absentees, the casualty ward included James Fisher-Harris, Leka Halasima, Viliame Kikau, Jack Wighton, Nicho Hynes and many more.

What did we get? Three cracking games played with desperate intensity, and a Friday night serving of the razzle-dazzle that is making the Dolphins everyone’s second-favourite team.

A lot of exciting newcomers made their debuts. Yes, the Origin period distorts the comp, but it has also revealed grounds for optimism that this magic pudding of a football code will keep producing enough talent to sustain its expansion.

NRL should draw Klein in the sand

The rule of every scandal since the break-in to the Watergate building is that the cover-up is worse than the crime. Still, nobody learns.

So it has turned out with Ashley Klein-Gate, where a six-year secret around the NRL’s investigation of the........

© Brisbane Times