The NRL\u2019s most popular product State of Origin will take over AFL heartland Melbourne with the blockbuster series returning to the MCG next year.<\/p>\n
In a massive marketing opportunity for the game and guaranteed exposure, more than 90,000 fans are expected to watch NSW and Queensland collide in game two of the 2026 State of Origin series. <\/p>\n
Origin I will be staged at Accor Stadium on Wednesday, May 27 and the third and final game of the series held at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday, July 8. <\/p>\n
The much-anticipated women\u2019s State of Origin series will also create history by being played on the Gold Coast for the first time. <\/p>\n
Origin III will be held at Cbus Super Stadium on the Gold Coast on Thursday, May 28. <\/p>\n
The women\u2019s Origin series will launch in Newcastle at McDonald Jones Stadium on Thursday, April 30, followed by game two at Suncorp Stadium on Thursday, May 14.<\/p>\n
For the men\u2019s it is the first time Origin has been played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground since game two of the 2024 series, when the Blues smashed the Maroons 38-18.<\/p>\n
A crowd of 90,084 attended the Origin II contest of the 2024 series. <\/p>\n
Next year\u2019s clash could be of major consequence, and a chance for Laurie Daley\u2019s NSW to wrap-up the series after being handed the advantageous position of Origin I hosting duties at Accor Stadium in Sydney.<\/p>\n
The Blues are aiming to rebound after losing last year\u2019s prized Origin shield to Billy Slater\u2019s Maroons 2-1 in the three-game series. <\/p>\n
The first two games of next year\u2019s Origin series are huge for the Blues, in a position of wanting to decide the series before travelling to Queensland for the third and final game at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n
The Blues proposition of winning a decider in Brisbane is historically daunting.<\/p>\n
A return to Melbourne for just the seventh time in State of Origin history continues the NRL\u2019s decision to use an alternative venue outside of NSW and Queensland.<\/p>\n
Game two of the 2025 series was held at Optus Stadium in Perth, game two of 2024 at the MCG and Origin I of the 2023 series at the Adelaide Oval. <\/p>\n
The NRL is also poised to announce the Under-19s State of Origin and Under-19s Women\u2019s State of Origin will be held at North Sydney Oval on Thursday, June 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NRL\u2019s most popular product State of Origin will take over AFL heartland Melbourne with the blockbuster series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[161328,638,161334,64,63,689,55,639,11170,161329,26501,651,30088,1208,2057,4603,2105,2485,161330,3194,161332,647,161331,673,10668,38292,3583,677,46,161326,701,13385,161333,85,670,161327,660,3439],"class_list":["post-278306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-advantageous-position","tag-afl","tag-alternative-venue-outside","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-billy-slater","tag-blockbuster-series","tag-brent-read","tag-brisbane","tag-david-riccio","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-final-game","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-guaranteed-exposure","tag-kevin-walters","tag-massive-marketing-opportunity","tag-melbourne","tag-much-anticipated-women","tag-new-south-wales","tag-newcastle","tag-north-sydney","tag-northern-europe","tag-oceania","tag-perth","tag-popular-product","tag-queensland","tag-queensland-maroons","tag-shield-defence","tag-sports","tag-sydney","tag-three-game-series","tag-victoria","tag-western-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}