Better coaches. More players available. Better officiating. Better analysis from the media, pretty please.
Let me explain.
State of Origin is our pinnacle product. The product that makes foreigners raise eyebrows in all corners of the world when they watch quizzically and ask “club teammates bash each other like that?”
It's the game that gets most people in Australia tuning in. If they don't tune in, they know it's happening.
Yet we appoint coaches with next to no coaching experience, to coach squads heavily depleted due to ridiculous injury counts in the NRL.
We pay large amounts for a bunker that cannot get basic decisions right.
Then our media also praise beyond measure a player who, quite basically, did what he is paid to do and what he tends to do most weeks anyway. Not only is he praised, he is touted widely as a future immortal.
The dust has now settled on another State of Origin series. New South Wales have reclaimed the shield, Nathan Cleary has been crowned the game's premier halfback once again, and Laurie Daley has been widely praised for leading the Blues back to victory.
Some of that praise is deserved. Some of it has gone overboard though.
As always seems to happen after Origin, the media narrative has become very black and white. The reality, as it usually is in coaching, sits somewhere in the middle.
I'll start with the coaching of both states. Laurie Daley and Billy Slater. Both are celebrity choices with very little coaching background.
Compare this approach with the choice many countries have made about coaches at the current FIFA World Cup. Top class, fulltime performers carry the clipboard in many cases and as a result, playing standards and tactical acumen have gone through the roof.
Watching New South Wales from Game 1 to Game 3 was a painful process for those of a blue persuasion and for tactical analysts. As a result of a tidal wave of very fair and justified criticisms, Laurie Daley had to backflip and give his players more freedom after game two, and he definitely deserves praise for that.
He freed them up so much it even made commentary analyst Cameron Smith opine “The ball movement, and the speed at which they're playing, they're playing with a lot more freedom.”
We even had the New South Wales coaches brief the media on their interchange policies before game three. Why? Because in the first two games they looked absolutely clueless.
Daley was at pains in the post-match press conference to refer to himself as a ‘leader'. It's clear the series and pressure surrounding it had impacted him. Apparently, he is also stepping down as coach, arguably another admission that he wasn't a good fit for the role he was given.
But should Origin be where we watch coaches learn the basics while on the job?
The man in the opposition coaching box has to learn some basics too, such as how to make the Maroons attack look a lot less readable.
Queensland shifted the ball on play four constantly throughout the series, giving their opponents 50% of a six-tackle set to get their defence ready to slide and cover it. It took New South Wales until the third game to learn how to cover it.
Pat Carrigan, a forward leader in Maroon, was sat on the bench and not used throughout game three. Why?
The management around Sam Walker's HIA was a head-scratcher. Walker went off, Walsh came on, then as if to say Kalyn Ponga wasn't the best option 60 minutes into a decider, he was brought off the park so Walsh could stay on despite being overlooked for actual selection all series.
Cameron Munster, who is known for having a suspect defence, was isolated by New South Wales so much. Where was his protection?
The quality of coaching this origin series has left an awful lot to be desired.
I will not labour on this next point but NRL injury rates are appalling and we have just seen another Origin series pass without several stars featuring. Tom Dearden, Lattrell Mitchell, Xavier Coates just three of the names who will be cursing their luck.
Origin needs as many of our best stars available.
But also, another frustration is our media's obsession with anointing stars and I really struggle with some of the commentary surrounding Nathan Cleary.
He's now being described as having ‘conquered' origin.
Did he play well? Yes, he did. But let's keep it in context.
When quizzed on what he did in attack, nobody can seemingly explain much beyond a dummy and go for his first try, backing up in support for his second and a one-on-one steal that happened to lead to a try.
They are things that several other players in a team can do as well, not necessary the tricks solely for the halves to show.
What Cleary actually did was move the ball more freely than in the first two games, but his halves partner Mitchell Moses had far more run and kick metres than he did. Not that the mainstream media tell you that.
Origin is a three-game series, not a one-game evaluation.
Great players don't suddenly become leaders because their team wins the final match. Leadership is demonstrated consistently across an entire campaign.
Cleary finished the series strongly and deserves credit for that. But some of the commentary feels more like media storytelling than objective analysis.
The analysis and the plaudits are loaded with so much hyperbole it is actually insulting to many others in the New South Wales side who played fantastically. Liam Martin and Hudson Young for example, who took the fight to the Maroons and turned the momentum of the game constantly. His competitiveness, effort and willingness to put his body where others will not continues to set the standard. He wins collisions, competes repeatedly and lifts teammates simply through his actions.
And to continue to talk about Suncorp Stadium as a graveyard for New South Wales fails to acknowledge it's not the old Lang Park, XXXX beer cans as projectiles and all. Nor that our whole competition moved to the modern stadium during COVID times and we have a magic round there each year.
Whatever club a player plays for, there's every chance the two stadiums they play at most often apart from their home ground are Suncorp and Accor at Sydney Olympic Park, the home of Origin in NSW and plenty of big matches including the grand final.
And the other issue that has plagued the fallout is the officiating.
Regardless of which side you supported, it's unhealthy for the game's biggest spectacle when refereeing dominates discussion year after year.
Whether its questionable send offs, lopsided penalty counts or very questionable bunker decisions, the fact it's all playing such an important role in outcomes is hard to stomach.
Players, coaches and fans deserve to know what constitutes a penalty one week and what doesn't the next. And when it needs to, the bunker should take it's time to make the right decision and look at all camera angles.
State of Origin should be remembered for football, not endless debates over interpretations.
I understand why the Blues fans are cock-a-hoop and the Maroon faithful is berating the officials. That's what passionate fans do.
Well done New South Wales. Unlucky Queensland, better luck next time.
But a more sober analysis of what actually unfolded is needed.
