Watching the state of origin today made me realise how pointless the exiles match is! They could send any of those teams over and wipe the floor with our national side! Why not have a tournament with our counties instead, so as to see three teams who are all eligible to play for the nation. If marketed correctly, it would profit the game, as well as bring other players who may not get the exposure needed to get selected for england, to the fore. This would stop the England "coach" from picking "names" other than form players. Obviously it would take a few series to get some sort of standing and meaning in the calender, but overall, it would be great for the English game.

Agree with all of the above

Makes complete sense to me, but the RFL will be paranoid about it going against the expansion gospel. My response to that would be to ask why Victoria aren't involved in Origin?

We need a state of origin game but it doesn't necessarily have to be anti expansionist, include expansion areas in it, turn it into a proper big competition with Lancashire, Yorkshire, The North (Cumbria & Northumberland al all up that way), The South, Wales and France. 2 groups of 3 all play each other once, the winner of one group plays 2nd of the other and vice versa then the winners of those games goes through to the final. France & Wales stand more of a chance of getting more competitive games rather than simply being hammer by England and Lancashire play Yorkshire which is the most competitive highest quality game and the closest you can come to an Anzac test in the Northern Hemisphere. The expansion national teams get more competitive games, Lancashire play Yorkshire producing the best game of rugby possible in the Europe, more players get to play higher quality rugby inspiring more players into the game and the fans get a top quality competition and the best rugby they'll see all season it's a win, win, win, win situation and needs to be done.

Maybe because although the storm are a very successful team within victoria, as far as i know, they are the only professional club in the state, with the vast majority of their team being from sydney with the odd kiwi! would be like us including greater london in our origin, or catalunya. lol. The aussies have hit the nail on the head with regards to expansion as well, after their failed attempt with adelaide rams, they have ploughed their time and effort into the hotbeds of sydney and queensland, whilst carefully picking out areas where a team was in demand, such as canberra and melbourne, and if you look at the product the NRL has become by staying true to their west coast teams, not too dis-similar to our "m62 corridor" then there can be no argument that consolidating the clubs you have, and turning them into a real product that fans attach to, is the way to go IMO.

Lanc's, Yorks & Exiles would be a decent Tri set of games that would give plenty of intensisty and open up the pool of players for England.
It would also give the Yorkshire / Lancashire rivalry a chance to build up again.

At the same time these fixtures are played have a Wales, France & Cumbria set of games in a seperate tournament to get those 2 nations playing International RL at a intense level and get the Cumbrians back involved in RL.

I honestly dont think it would work, It would just end up as a friendly game between players that know, and play along side each other with their clubs. I think the main difference is, that to most rugby league players in England its just a job that they inherited from playing well at school because they chose to play it. In Australia, Rugby League and the NRL is their life, it isnt just a job to them. Thats why they will always have the edge over us, its just a mentallity that is drummed into them from early school. Thats why the State of origin works so well.

So are you saying the Oz players choose to play as a vocation as opposed to our players doing it for the £s......Chuckles.....
SOO was n`t always like the current theme............We (RFL) should stick to our County of Origins and let it blossom but give it 5/10 years to develop.

Why Bartie? it was played for years before being scrapped and never meant a thing then so whats changed now?

Fred, it was always played as a meaningless end of season nonentity. I`m all for giving a re-invented County of Origin a go, we nearly made a go of it 10 years ago when NT made the Lancs squad. We just need the RFL to put as much influence into that venture as they do into other ones but it needs to be mid season as the SOO is.

It wasn't Bartie it was a prime fixture throughout the 50's and 60's and dropped off dramatically during the 70's and completely in the 80's was brought back in the 90's but failed to get the public's imagination, the blip 10 years ago was just that.

Lancashire v Yorkshire though could be easily cured for intensisty, like everything it needs time (unfortunatly in RL we alter things either yearly or bi annually).
I'd keep the Exiles in the mix though to give it that edge and as the Exiles fixture did work very well.
However I'd make a few alterations to previous (more recent) Origin games, such as anyone stating they are unfit needs to be deemed so be the England doctor/medical team.
Anyone playing badly doesn't get picked for GB / England, sounds obvious but the last time around we had players treating it as a social poorly performing yet knew they would still be going on a plane to Australia as the 'reputation' picked them.
Pick players on current form and only the 100% committed and we'll see a better game.

In terms of what Freds mentions about the older fixtures, I can't speak for the 50 & 60's (not that old !) but in times after that the Great Britain selection team had a easier job than now as every Aussie / Kiwi Tour played the top club sides (giving the chance to see what a certain player could do before a International) so the Lanc's v Yorks match was of less importance to finding our better players for big games than it may be now.

Just on that note, why do we never have real RL tours anymore ?
I'm sure plenty of people would love to see Wire , Saints etc, etc take on Australia or New Zealand and I'm equally certain it would raise the games profile in the National press, I'm sure it would be seen as more attractive to touring fans (and I suspect players) rather than sitting around in a hotel all day in winter waiting for Saturday to come around.

Is it time the RFL had a rethink and allowed us to see Touring National sides take on our best club teams (as well as perhaps, Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Exiles - now they would be games with intensity ! ! !)

no 'real' tours because there isn't an overlap of seasons anymore, can you imagine SL or NRL clubs letting their players off on tour for 3 months ?

I agree, I don't think it would happen.
Don't think theres anything from a playing point of view really stopping Australia playing England in 3 test games along with matches v the Top 3 SL clubs (or fixtures v Wales, Lancashire and Yorkshire) to make it a 6 game tour (especially if 2 games are midweek).
4 - 6 Weeks maximum away for the Aussies (and some money made) along with good press exposure for the game and some real tough fixtures for our players.
Like you said though, can't imagine it ever happening again which is a real pity as the old tours used to be something to look forward to.

Fully agree with Rennies idea , would love to see county origin matches back besides that though.
Think most of us know though that anything that seems like a reasonably good idea to us is never viewed the same by the RFL .

If an origin series was played at the end of the season could also see a few coaches being against it as they don't want any injuries to star players during the off season . From a fans point of view I think most of us would back the idea .