Cricket
Motorsport
Basketball test
League - Test
Combat Sports
Netball
Football
Strange's suggestion to improve Women's Origin
Nicholas Quinlan • May 29th, 2026 6:02 pm
Following their series win over the Maroons, NSW coach John Strange believes the NRL should change its schedule for the Women’s State of Origin series to better suit the NRLW season.
For the first time since the series moved to multiple games in 2023, the Blues claimed a three-nil series whitewash against Queensland following a 12-4 win on Thursday on the Gold Coast.
With the series now complete, those playing will not feature on the field until July when the NRLW season begins.
This decision to play the series on a similar timeline to the men has already drawn plenty of criticism from players, who believe it doesn’t allow for the best product to be played, given the lack of match play prior to the showcase event.
This is a sentiment shared by Strange, who thinks the NRL should introduce a mini pre-season tournament for the NRLW sides ahead of State of Origin to give players much-needed match fitness and allow coaches to select with more current form.
“I think in time with the natural progression of the NRLW, that'll expand to what the NRL is doing and then we can mirror that,” Strange told SEN’s Kick-Off.
“My thoughts on that, which I've sort of made clear to the NRL and the RLPA going back probably 18 months now, is to try and get not even a competition, more like a sort of four-week trial period, so all the NRLW clubs could trial against each other.
“So have actual games early on in the year, so they'd do a little pre-season, play each other, say four rounds. It's not non-competition, more just so the girls can actually play footy.
“It'll give our Origin coaches something to pick from, so you're picking on sort of current form instead of trying to go back from last year's form.
“Then it'll also ready the girls for games like Origin.
“So that's my suggestion.”
The NRLW season gets underway on July 2 when the Sharks host the Newcastle Knights at Ocean Protect Stadium.
