State of Origin is the show piece in a sport that is about to sign a $5 billion TV deal.
Outside of sell out crowds and TV ratings on match day though, you wouldn't know it.
The build up to the game is one issue, and so too is the game day experience, but the nature of what Origin is starts with team selections.
Every year though it's the same dance.
A guessing game around when each state will announce their team, most of the squad leaked before it's officially revealed, and absolutely no event feel to it.
Team selection is hardly the biggest part of an Origin series and preparation, but for fans, it's something that has been debated for weeks, and for players finding out they have made it, among the biggest moments of their career.
Why then ahead of a monstrous decider, you have to ask, were NSW fans tuning into a YouTube live stream that was so hard to find only 3000 people at its peak were interested, and Queensland fans waiting for a press release the following morning?
Team selections should set the energy for the entire week, the entire camp, and the fan energy building into Origin, which as we already know ruins the regular season for a month and a half through the crucial middle part of the campaign.
Instead, Game 1 this year saw Casey McLean announced as Casey McGuire by Blues coach Laurie Daley, and Game 3 saw a half an hour delay for the Blues as fans took to social media wondering where their squad announcement was.
Game 2 wasn't without its headache. The Blues team was announced, and within an hour, sections of the media were reporting Stephen Crichton was out - the wonders of naming a team 60 minutes after the final game of the round finished.
Queensland haven't had quite as many problems, although their team announcement for Game 3 - dropped at the time of 8:11am on Monday morning - came without a great deal of fanfare.
Again, not a disaster, but not what should be leading into an Origin game, particularly given the Blues for Game 2 named a squad and not an actual team list, and now the Maroons have done the same for Game 3.
The bottom line is that team announcements for the game's showpiece event should be accessible, and not up in the air about when.
It would be far simpler if the NRL simply said both teams would announce their sides at a joint event on the Monday morning after a round finishes leading into the Origin camp.
The players could be already told and on their way in, but teams should be closely guarded, not leaking like a tap, and ultimately, there shouldn't be the opportunity for states to simply pick and choose when they announce their squads.
I don't want to claim whichever state goes second receives an unfair advantage, but it could certainly be construed that way.
Origin has its share of issues, and maybe when and how teams are announced isn't the biggest of them, but this should be an event, it should be managed, and done to a far higher standard than it currently is.
