On AFL grounds, rugby league’s best kickers can get ‘lost’ in Origin (2024)

The day before NSW played a State of Origin match at Perth’s Optus Stadium, the Blues finished their final session when the squad jumped on the team bus to return to their hotel.

Halfback Nathan Cleary was missing. The noted perfectionist was still in the middle of the cavernous venue, primarily used for AFL, trying to figure out a task that has always come naturally to him: kicking.

It wasn’t as if he was out of form or was struggling with his technique, he just wasn’t used to standing on a rectangular rugby league field in the middle of an oval ground.

“They went out and he said, ‘I think you should take the bus home’,” league legend Andrew Johns said. “He kicked, and he kicked, working on his bearings and his angles because you can really get lost, especially at the MCG. It’s such a big oval.”

On Wednesday night, a Cleary-less Blues will be trying to save an Origin series on the hallowed turf of Melbourne’s premier sporting facility.

Every week, it’s the home of torpedoes, drop punts and banana kicks in the AFL - but for rugby league stars used to playing in rectangular stadiums such as Allianz, Suncorp and CommBank, it presents a different experience.

Since the NRL started using an Origin match each year as a way of promoting the game in non-traditional states and cashing in on government spending, rugby league’s best have been playing on oval venues, providing a minor headache for kickers who rely on spatial awareness from rectangular fences at stadiums.

So, how do you adapt?

“I’ve got to say, I hated playing on those [oval] grounds,” Johns said. “It takes your spacing and bearings away, plus the atmosphere is lost on you. I always found when I was playing on an oval surface, I tried to make it simple. If I was kicking long, I would go towards the corner post. That was my target.”

For a team derided for getting their kicking wrong in the game one defeat, NSW’s chief playmakers Mitchell Moses - parachuted into the team for Nicho Hynes - and Jarome Luai will have to conquer the crucial aspect on a ground they haven’t played at.

Moses, in particular, is renowned for having the best long-kicking game in the NRL alongside Cleary and will need to get quickly up to speed playing on an oval venue, subject to different wind patterns. His Origin appearances to date have been at Gold Coast’s Cbus Super Stadium, Brisbane’s Suncorp and Sydney’s Accor.

It’s not as though the Blues haven’t had success at the MCG before: they’ve won four of the five matches played there, including the last time Origin was in Victoria, Brad Fittler’s first match in charge of NSW in 2018. Cleary played his first Origin game that night.

NSW’s record at other predominantly AFL venues is mixed. They’ve recorded two thumping wins at Optus Stadium (2019 and 2022), but have lost both games at the Adelaide Oval (2020 and last year).

The last time NSW played at the MCG, a host of Blues players walked out onto the ground for their traditional captain’s run on game eve and were in awe of Australia’s biggest stadium.

They quickly found themselves at home though, with Cleary and James Maloney dominating Queensland in kicking metres (903 to 657), albeit Queensland’s Ben Hunt produced the game’s only 40/20 kick.

But the modern-day player has been helped by the Roosters playing home games at the SCG while the neighbouring Allianz Stadium was rebuilt.

“I’ve played on the SCG and Perth, you sort of get your bearings pretty quickly,” Luai said. “These last couple of weeks, we’ve done a lot of reps with kicking. I don’t think it will be a problem. We normally do a captain’s run on the field. We’ll do our reps there and get our bearings.”

with Adrian Proszenko

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