We've already had that argument – most recently, it's been around for 20 years – in response to Greg Bird being banned for the entire State of Origin series for a dangerous throw in the Anzac Test.

Let me spell it out this way: if Greg Bird tried to play in Super League this weekend, he would not be allowed. If he wanted to play organised rugby union, he would not be allowed. Or AFL. Or netball.

But Australian rugby league is so insular that there is a serious argument the disciplinary sanctions observed worldwide across all sports (in theory) should not apply for a different type of the same sport? Please..

If you rob a bank in Perth, they don't let you go to the pub in Melbourne. To put it another way, maybe we should allow prison inmates to play Origin. After all, they didn't commit their crimes IN an Origin game, did they? So what does it matter?

An offence is an offence - suspensions can't apply selectively because no one can make that work fairly.

If you create an environment where illegal play is treated more leniently – imagine if Greg Bird was banned from Australia's next Test in 12 months, or a grand final was worth 200 or 300 demerit points and we're playing in a preliminary final – you would eventually just get more illegal play.

People do what they can get away with, particularly in professional sports. And you – the rugby league administrator – would be partly responsible for what happened, including the injuries of players who cop tackles that would normally attract a three-game ban but which now won't prevent the assailant  from playing in the season decider.

Surely the bigger problems for clubs is the players who are not banned, who have done nothing wrong, being stopped from turning out for the organisation that pays their wages. For the 999th time, this is objectively ridiculous.

It's alright for Channel Nine's David Gyngell to say Wednesday night Origins 'ain't broke' – but split rounds are laying around in tiny pieces and all the king's horses will never be able to put them together again, never mind the monarch's men.

I am reasonably confident telecasters just won't be offered Wednesday night Origins with split rounds when the current TV deal expires – "sold out", "no longer available", "off the table", "buy this instead".

Origin will be played in a timeslot that does not require clubs to take the field without their players (maybe there is some way for that to be Wednesday but I can't see how) and you can have it for your channel or we'll sell it someone else.

And that's the way it should be. We put the games on where and when we want, you televise 'em.

Different state of affairs

Even though I am far more excited about the Super League Magic Weekend than I am about the game at Homebush that precedes it, the sheer size of Origin creates all sorts of fascinating side issues.

In lead-up media coverage, the rules change. The great 'war' between the two states' tabloids, who are owned by the same proprietor, is endlessly fascinating.

Of course, they are just capitalising on a cultural event to boost sales by having a shot at each other and the opposing state's players, appealing to the year's deepest well of community parochialism. It's bankable banter.

But I ask this question in all sincerity: are the coaches whose names are banned from being published and the players who are described as being duds etc in on the joke?

Does someone whisper in their ear when the sides are named and tell them the rules have changed for 10 days and we'll respect you again in the morning as if none of this happened?

I don't know. Last time I covered an Origin build-up it wasn't quite this gung-ho. As I said, endlessly fascinating…

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