ACT government won't blow their dough on Origin show

With Victoria going into a seven-day lockdown on Thursday, the venue for Origin I is up in the air given it's scheduled to be held at the MCG on June 9 - in less than two weeks' time.

NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo said they wanted to give Victoria every chance to host the NSW-Queensland clash in Melbourne and would make a decision in the coming days.

While he ruled out regional venues, he said all other options were still being considered.

Earlier in the week, Abdo said their preference was to keep the game at a neutral venue, meaning Canberra Stadium, Adelaide Oval and Perth Stadium were options.

The South Australian government reportedly paid $6 million to host Origin I last year, but the ACT government have made it clear they wouldn't be paying to bring the showcase event to Canberra Stadium.

But if that wasn't the case then the venue could be an option.

The NRL have only made preliminary inquiries with the stadium to determine if it was available for that Wednesday night.

No discussions with the government outside of that have taken place.

Abdo wanted a final decision made before the Blues and Maroons went into Origin camp early next week.

"First and foremost we want to make sure we do the right thing and give Melbourne every chance of hosting game one, which is coming up in a couple of weeks," he said.

"Should that not be the case we'll consider the safety, we'll consider a number of factors in looking at alternative venues.

"Nothing is off the table. We're looking at a wide range of potential locations and we hope to make a decision in the coming days.

"We don't have a preferred option at this stage because we're busy getting all the data that we need to consider the options.

"Clearly playing at the MCG remains an option for us, but equally when the commission weighs up where we play game one they'll have to take a number of factors into account and we don't have all the data we need at this point."

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Abdo said stadium size was a consideration, but it wasn't the only one - keeping the door open for Canberra Stadium and it's 25,000 capacity.

He said they hadn't ruled out playing in front of an empty MCG, but hinted it was unlikely.

"It's not ruled out, but this is State of Origin. It's a pretty special occasion and clearly playing in front of some crowd is definitely a factor here," Abdo said.

"I don't think the Victorian government would want us to play in front of an empty stadium.

"The whole point of us taking State of Origin there is ideally you want to be playing in front of 80-90,000 people."

NRL ROUND 12

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Sydney Roosters at Gosford, 7.35pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Caleb Aekins, 2. Bailey Simonsson, 3. Sebastian Kris, 4. Curtis Scott, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. Sam Williams, 8. Dunamis Lui, 9. Tom Starling, 10. Emre Guler, 11. Corey Harawira-Naera, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Ryan Sutton. Interchange: 14. Josh Hodgson, 15. Iosia Soliola, 16. Corey Horsburgh, 17. Ryan James. Reserves: 18. Elijah Anderson, 19. Harry Rushton, 20. Brad Schneider, 21. Hudson Young.

Roosters squad: 1. James Tedesco, 2. Daniel Tupou, 3. Josh Morris, 4. Joseph Manu, 5. Matt Ikuvalu, 6. Lachlan Lam, 7. Sam Walker, 8. Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, 9. Ben Marschke, 10. Siosiua Taukeiaho, 12. Sitili Tupouniua, 13. Isaac Liu. Interchange: 14. Adam Keighran, 15. Nat Butcher, 16. Daniel Suluka-Fifita, 17. Fletcher Baker. Reserves: 18. Tukupa Hau, Tapuha, 19. Naufahu Whyte, 20. Egan Butcher, 21. Joseph Suaalii.

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