AAP
Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens is confident the man at the centre of a NSW Origin selection battle - hooker Robbie Farah - can ignore the talk to continue the Tigers' NRL recovery.
The Tigers have bounced back from a horrendous start to the NRL season to record back-to-back wins, but their momentum is being threatened by off-field dramas.
Having survived claims of a falling out between star pairing Farah and Benji Marshall, the Tigers have now had to deal with criticisms from former Tigers and Blues legend Steve Roach that Farah was not an Origin-type player.
It followed tit-for-tat barbs from Sheens and NSW coach Ricky Stuart over player loyalty - with Farah the focal-point - but Sheens didn't expect the Origin talk to affect his skipper's form.
"His job is to play well for Wests Tigers - that's it," Sheens told reporters as his team prepared to fly north for Saturday's game against Gold Coast at Skilled Park.
"Robbie's a professional, he'll go out every week as he does to win the game.
"In a long season, lots of things are said and done in respect to the team and different individuals.
"I think they've learnt to ignore that and just concentrate on their preparation for their football game.
"They can handle it whether it's good or bad publicity, they know they have to switch on when it comes to game time."
Despite Roach's comments, Farah has been left at the head of the queue for the NSW No.9 jumper following the achilles injury to first-choice hooker Danny Buderus, with incumbent Michael Ennis and Melbourne's Ryan Hinchcliffe also in contention.
Sheens shied away from talking up his skipper's chances again, other than to add:
"I put my two cents worth … I've carried Robbie as the second Test hooker now for three Four Nations tours, so that's what I think of him."
Meanwhile, speculation the Australian Rugby League Commission was looking at taking an Origin clash to Melbourne every year received some support on Friday.
The Victorian government has made a five-year, $12.5 million bid to stage one of the three matches in the series on a regular basis.
While there has been a backlash at political level in NSW, there was endorsement in rugby league circles.
"I see some real positives in it," said South Sydney coach Michael Maguire, who spent six seasons in the Victorian capital as an assistant to Craig Bellamy at the Storm.
"The game's moving forward down there and obviously we're trying to get a bigger proportion of supporters watching the game."
Sheens, who coached NSW to a series loss in 1991, said moving Origin - rugby league's showpiece event - was vital to the growth of the sport.
"I think the game's grown to a point where we have to do something like that," he said.
"The old two and one system is keeping the game in Queensland and NSW.
"As long as it goes for everybody - both NSW and Queensland - I see it being a evry positive thing."
A report in The Australian on Friday also suggested a US consortium had made a bid to stage an Origin game in Los Angeles in 2014.
