Oct 16, 2024, 08:23 PM ET
The world’s best are in our backyard for the next month. Why doesn’t anyone care?
The Pacific Championships are upon us, with Australia finally facing off against Tonga some five years after that seismic upset in 2019. Previews for the game should be front and centre of wherever you consume rugby league content. And yet, they aren’t.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably excited for the month ahead, as I am. But there’s a near-certain chance that you’ve got a bunch of mates with a passing interest in the NRL, or who only care about footy around Origin time, who have no clue that these internationals are even taking place.
Ironically, it was the pre-tournament selection drama that was afforded far more coverage than the games themselves.
Kalyn Ponga’s involvement in the series, including his ‘will he or won’t he?’ routine that would have made John Farnham blush, was covered extensively — and that was during the NRL finals series when those games should be front and centre.
But a week after the grand final, where there’s no footy on, Ponga was ultimately left out of the squad despite being available. The reaction to this was a comparative whimper.
You have to ask yourself why, at a time of year where rugby league content is at its lowest, and we have a full slate of internationals coming up over the next few weekends, the news cycle is more concerned with where Ben Hunt is going to play in 2026 than Australia playing Tonga.
It’s particularly relevant who the Kangaroos’ opponents are this weekend – Tonga, along with other Pacific nations, have been at the forefront of the explosion of interest in international rugby league that reached a climax in 2019 with that incredible 16-12 win over Australia at Eden Park. But for a variety of reasons, a game which should have been a jetpack taking the international game to new heights, was allowed to wither on the vine.
Tonga stunned Australia at Eden Park in 2019, toppling the Kangaroos for the first time Fiona Goodall/Getty Images
Of course, COVID played a part in a lack of internationals in the immediate aftermath of the aforementioned 16-12 win to Tonga, but make no mistake — there are plenty of backroom figures in clubland that would do away with international footy entirely if they could.
The best example of this was the ridiculous decision to postpone the 2021 World Cup under heavy pressure from the NRL, using the guise of ‘safety concerns’, while the club season and Origin both went ahead without a fuss.
Which brings us to the gigantic maroon and blue elephant in the room. State of Origin is an incredible spectacle which has no real peer in the sporting world. It’s a thoroughly unique and powerful beast, outrating the NRL Grand Final regularly. It’s also the biggest reason why international football is still treated like an afterthought.
Many players have said winning an Origin series is a bigger career high than a premiership, and there are fans who parachute in for three games a year, every year, who have no real interest in the week-to-week grind of the club season. State of Origin is an unstoppable juggernaut that even club officials know better than to mess with.
But this is the unsolvable problem; if both players and fans alike treat playing for your state as the highest honour, how can we convince a casual fan to care about international footy?
Mid-season Tests no longer exist as they used to, and the sheer number of games the Kangaroos play has plummeted and with a bloated club schedule already taking a huge toll on players, there’s no demand to bring them back, either.
The Kangaroos were humbled 30-0 by New Zealand in last year’s Pacific Championships Final Phil Walter/Getty Images
Cameron Smith played for Australia 56 times. Darren Lockyer racked up 59. Nathan Cleary, already 26 years old, has just five caps for his country.
The only clear solutions are impractical ones. Broadcasters will never agree to a shortened club season to have more windows for internationals, nor do players feel financially or spiritually incentivised to forgo end-of-season surgeries or shrug off other ailments to play after the season has ended. But of course, higher match payments for players would be swiftly bonked on the head by the money men.
Imagine, if you will, an Origin incumbent bypassing the chance to play for Queensland or New South Wales due to a niggling shoulder or knee. It would never happen.
This week should be full of positive stories like Lindsay Smith becoming the latest in a proud line of international bolters from the team that won the premiership, Xavier Coates’ form renaissance over the past 18 months culminating in Kangaroos selection, or Mitchell Moses coming back from an injury that ended his NRL season to don the green and gold.
Instead, there’s been next to nothing. Hopefully you enjoy the games, like I will – and hope that eventually, things change for the better.
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