The NSW Blues are headed to the bush.
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It's the kind of headline we love to see. Metropolitan media reported on Tuesday, April 2, new NSW Origin coach Michael Maguire wanted to change things up ahead of the 2024 series against those Queenslanders.
Perfect.
So where can we expect to see them? Dubbo? Maybe Mudgee? Or will it be outside our area at a place like Wagga or Tamworth?
None of those apparently.
No country camping
In an article from the Daily Telegraph, it's reported the NSW Blues will hold a training camp at the Fairmont Resort at Leura.
That's right, a luxury resort in the Blue Mountains. Talk about rubbing shoulders with bush footy fans.
It did state in the article that being based at the Blue Mountains meant visits to places like Lithgow, Bathurst and Mudgee could be possible. That's great, no denying that at all, but we're still not taking this as a huge win for the country.
When the team can't even make it across the mountains for a camp we're not exactly jumping for joy.
Before we get too carried away, we're all aware how difficult an Origin preparation can be.
The camp is being staged in between NRL matches, coaches don't want players having to travel too much, and you want things to be as smooth as possible before games which are at a standard unlike most we see each year.
Packing up the base in Sydney and heading somewhere as far west as Dubbo isn't an easy thing to do. We get that.
We know you need top-class facilities for something like an Origin camp, too.
But, we would love to see an effort made for the bush.
In 2022, four NRL premiership matches were played in regional areas and talk at the time was there was an opportunity for that to grow. A Regional NRL Taskforce was even put in place Dubbo MP Dugald Saunders chaired it.
But this year there's three premiership games in country NSW - one of those at Bathurst due to the long-standing agreement with the Penrith Panthers - while Mudgee also lost the pre-season Charity Shield as it returned to Sydney.
Part of the reason for those changes was time and resource constraints when two games in round one this year were played in Las Vegas. Sorry country fans, US comes first.
West left wondering
There was real excitement around the regions in 2022 when talk of more games in the bush was relatively frequent.
But now it just feels a lot like take, take, take from the NRL.
Again, it's not easy going to the country and it can be expensive too. But surely some things can be done for the greater good.
As the 2024 season nears there are so many families looking at their finances and realising in this current climate of cost of living challenges, registering a kid to plat footy isn't exactly simple.
Getting the chance to see how much rugby league meant to that kid as they watched some greats of the game being put through their paces at somewhere like Orange's Wade Park would certainly make it feel easier.
We're not asking for a lot here. We're just asking for some respect and a fair go.
It's been said a thousand times but rugby league needs the bush and our western area is such a hotbed of talent.
Rewarding that by having the NSW Blues spend a few days here to train seems like a pretty easy thing to do.