Now, I'm a "procedure geek". Discord loves the machinations around rugby league. I've made a career of seeking out inconsistencies, inequalities and the absence of transparency.

Oh how I loved Queensland circumventing a suspension by naming "TBA" in 2005!

Origin is fertile ground for this. Everyone is so stupidly blinded by its lustre that they'll bend or break any rule for it - but that's only half of it. People are also so blinded by it that they can't see the rules being broken or bent! Everyone buys into Origin so completely that it seems logical protocols would be completely ignored.

The selection of Anthony Milford to start for Queensland next Wednesday at Suncorp Stadium against New South Wales (I always like to say that, in the dream that I have, there's a reader who does not know which teams are in State of Origin), with Johnathan Thurston as 18th man, was very clever from coach Kevin Walters.

Milford has a club game this weekend and would have to play in it if he was 18th man. Thurston, who has a shoulder injury, has no club game.

If Thurston doesn't play - and the noises out of the Maroons camp suggest he won't - then we have no issue. But Thurston is not 18th man in the way, say, Jack De Belin is, right? If De Belin is full of beans next Wednesday morning, he still won't be thrown a shirt. Thurston, on the other hand ...

If JT comes good and plays, and Milford does odd jobs on Origin night despite being stood down from the Broncos' game against the Warriors, we have a problem Houston. It's a major watershed in the history of Origin and not a good one from the point of view of clubs.

Let's trace the history of Origin stand-downs. Origin was only put on Wednesday night to minimise the impact on clubs; in 1980 the idea that stars would not represent, on the previous weekend, the teams that employ them would have seemed utterly ridiculous.

As Origin grew, we had players stood down from matches only when the series was alive. The public interest was so great, as was the commercial interest - and as an unexpected bonus, Wednesday was a ratings winner. For dead rubbers, however, they all turned out for their clubs the previous weekend.

Finally, we made all 17 players ineligible for club football the previous weekend of all three matches.

Milford represents Origin encroaching even more on the NRL; he represents reserves being stood down from the previous week's round. It's a dangerous precedent. It matters not if Milford's club coach, Wayne Bennett, is OK with that. Because once it happens once, it can be replicated and the next club coach may not be so sympathetic.

A long-running convention will have been blown out of the water by the Origin behemoth. Again.

The spirit and intention of the rule is that only the 17 players who actually take part in Origin are exempt from club football the previous weekend. If you have a club game and you're wanted as an emergency reserve, you can't come into camp until the Sunday night.

Milford has a game this weekend. Therefore, under the spirit and intention of the rules around Origin, he MUST play either at Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday or at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday.

If he does not, the precedent is that even fellas watching from the dugout in a suit need to be so fresh to do so they should not have to don their club colours the previous weekend. And before you know it we'll have 18th, 19th and 20th men and the NRL will become even more meaningless for two months in mid-season.

Don't fret, it's easily fixed.

The NRL just needs to show some backbone and stand up to its cash cow for once. Simply stipulate that "no one can drop out of the originally named 17 except through injury".

It's called leadership.

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