It happens this time of year every season, you can almost set your watch by it given the range of stories emanating from a mixture of players, administrators and coaching staff about why we should or should not play this particular representative match.

Like any healthy debate, there’s plenty of sense in both arguments but in the end an answer can’t be found unless the match is understood for what it has become – a marketing tool.

Is it really still a test of the best of the bush against the city boys? Not since Noah was a boy.

Is the match a genuine State of Origin trial for NSW?

I don’t think it ever has been.

So why is the City-Country match actually still contested?

Well, other than to reflect on the game’s traditions, it’s simply a great way to take high profile players back to the grass roots and ‘press the flesh’.

Sign autographs, pose for photos and conduct the odd coaching clinic, you name it and the City-Country teams will do it all in the name of promotion of the game on the very fields that local kids play on.

So with that it mind, can we start to treat the match for what it is, from the top down?

This gets me on to the apparent need to select a guy like Danny Buderus for Country.

Now that we’ve all agreed on what the game really represents in the modern age, there really is no point to Buderus playing.

At a time in his career where even his training is structured around quality not quantity, the last thing Buderus needs is more game time, especially if it’s largely irrelevant to his needs.

He’s already proved himself at the highest level and barring injury, will captain the Blues in State of Origin.

However, as it stands, he’s available for Country selection but is already in doubt to back up for club side the following day with coach Brian Smith giving him leave not to force himself to put his body through what’s now become an arduous task.

Country coach Laurie Daley sympathises with the concerns of Brian Smith but you can’t blame him for wanting to pick Buderus.

Of course he’d want the former Kangaroo rake in his team especially given its Daley’s first top line coaching gig and you only get one chance to make a good first impression.

Daley aspires to higher honours and what better way to start off than by coaching Country to a win in the traditional match.

City-Country debate continues

I counter that with, what better way to make an impression than by selecting a young up-and-coming hooker and ‘coaching’ him and the side to a win?

Better yet, what about selecting a hooker from a country club side that may have been overlooked by city teams, or who hasn’t made the move to the NRL.

Not only would it be a great way to show off your credentials as a coach but it’d actually revive some of the traditions of the City-Country match by using actual talent from the bush.

Have no fear, on Friday night I’ll be happily watching the ‘traditional’ match with all its NRL players involved and remembering what it used to be about, while enjoying it for what it’s become.