NRL clubs and players need to stop whingeing about the State of Origin schedule and get on with the business of playing football, according to Canterbury’s representative forward James Graham.
With their halves Trent Hodkinson and Josh Reynolds helping pilot NSW to their first series win in nine years, the Bulldogs have been hit harder than most by Origin commitments.
Coach Des Hasler bemoaned the effect Origin was having on Canterbury’s premiership challenge after their round 14 loss to Parramatta, with Josh Morris and Tony Williams also involved with the Blues side at times this year.
But England prop Graham believes if clubs and players want the money associated with the NRL’s billion dollar TV deal, they must be prepared to give something in return.
“It is not ideal and people have mooted alternatives but it is hard when you sit down and talk with the top brass at the NRL when they will tell you that the TV deal is in place until 2017 and Fox and Channel Nine want a product and they are paying money for it,” Graham said.
“The increase in the grants and the increase in the salary caps, if you want them sometimes you have to give a little bit.
“Everyone would like stand alone Origin but until the money side of things gets renegotiated I don’t think you are going to get it.”
Graham said Melbourne’s grand final win over Canterbury in 2012 was proof that clubs who battle through the Origin period can still mount a serious title challenge.
The Storm lost five successive games at the back end of the interstate period, before winning eight straight to claim the premiership.
“It is no surprise to any team when it happens, so if you have players who regularly play Origin, you know the dance and you just have to deal with it and get on with it,” he said.
Hasler appears to have now accepted a disrupted NRL schedule during Origin as a fact of life.
“It has been a tough few weeks, all three Origin games we have been affected, but that is they way it is,” he said.
“Channel Nine are major contributors, they spend a billion dollars and obviously the Origin rates very, very well.”
