{"id":627385,"date":"2026-04-24T07:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T07:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/627385\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T07:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T07:17:09","slug":"nrlw-stars-call-out-obvious-headache-with-state-of-origin-timing-it-isnt-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/627385\/","title":{"rendered":"NRLW stars call out \u2018obvious\u2019 headache with State of Origin timing: \u2018It isn\u2019t great\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran NSW<\/a> forward Kezie Apps admits the Women\u2019s State of Origin<\/a> timing is \u201cnot ideal\u201d for athletes coming to play the toughest games of the year without any footy for six months.<\/p>\n

The current system has the women starting their season with the three-match Origin series before rolling into an NRLW campaign from July.<\/p>\n

Each year, the NRL schedules the Brisbane Women\u2019s Origin match as a Magic Round curtain-raiser to ensure large crowds and maximise interest in the series.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Playing on Thursday nights in place of men\u2019s NRL games also ensures prime-time eyeballs before men\u2019s Origin and finals dominate the calendar.<\/p>\n

The trade-off is the sport\u2019s best athletes coming cold into the Origin arena: Apps\u2019 last competitive game before next Thursday\u2019s Origin I was with the Jillaroos on November 9 last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it\u2019s not ideal,\u201d Apps told AAP.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo play Origin any time is amazing but the structure of it isn\u2019t great.<\/p>\n

\u201cIdeally we want NRLW to have a good pre-season with your club, play a couple of rounds and then go into an Origin campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like that\u2019s really fair on the talent pool as well and it\u2019s fair on us players that we don\u2019t have to sacrifice a lot to be a part of this six-week block and get yourself as physically prepared as possible coming into an Origin series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jocelyn Kelleher and Jayme Fressard both played their most recent game in the 2025 NRLW grand final with the Sydney Roosters, while Teagan Berry last played competitive footy in mid-September during St George Illawarra\u2019s finals campaign.<\/p>\n

Millie Elliott hasn\u2019t played in almost 18 months due to her pregnancy.<\/p>\n

Elliott agreed there were challenges with timing but enjoyed playing in close proximity to the men\u2019s series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the fact that it\u2019s at Origin time because everyone\u2019s talking about Origin,\u201d Elliott said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has got its own Thursday night slot which is really cool.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not ideal, the fact we haven\u2019t played beforehand, but Queensland are in the same boat as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day down the track we\u2019ll play footy beforehand and go into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Normally a back-rower, Apps has been given a new role coming off John Strange\u2019s bench and expected to be used as a middle forward.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old is no stranger to the middle, having played there at club level and for NSW and Australia across her illustrious career.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing off the bench, I obviously want to bring that impact, bring some energy but also a calm presence in that controlled sort of environment when being in the middle can get quite hectic and quite wishy-washy in there,\u201d Apps said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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2 min read<\/p>\n

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3 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran NSW forward Kezie Apps admits the Women\u2019s State of Origin timing is \u201cnot ideal\u201d for athletes coming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,192994,13385,588,85,6405],"class_list":{"0":"post-627385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-nsw-blues","14":"tag-queensland-maroons","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-state-of-origin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627385","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=627385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}