There is a simple solution to save NRL coaches from themselves, well, NSW coaches anyhow.

There has been a lot of criticism of Michael Maguire’s choice of four forwards on the bench and a lot of plaudits for Billy Slater’s choice of a specialist outside back as part of his four-man bench for State of Origin I.

Queensland lost their fullback in the seventh minute and were able to bring an outside back into their team and continue to play a quality brand of football and win the game.

The chances of losing an outside back are much greater today than they were a decade ago due to the advent of the independent doctor and the mandatory Head Injury Assessment (HIA).

Denan Kemp and a few other Rugby League commentators are throwing around statistics at the moment of how poorly NRL teams perform in a game after they lose an outside back to Head Injury Assessment (HIA).

Whether the statistics are accurate or not, it does suggest that the make-up of the bench needs to be reconsidered.

Many coaches have traditionally gone with the four forwards approach, or the three forwards and a utility.

What Kemp and others are suggesting is that the game has evolved, and a specialist outside back is needed – and I think they are correct.

The game has evolved in another way as well, the back five are more valuable than they were a decade ago because the workload across the teams is now more evenly distributed.

Think of Penrith’s back five and how important they are to start their sets off well by gaining valuable territory and giving their forwards rest.

The successful teams have a back five that takes the early hit-ups with violent enthusiasm. This enthusiasm also increases the likelihood of HIA so the factors start to feed themselves.

To be fair this doesn’t necessarily require a change to the game. Coaches can continue to pick the bench they want and take the results as they come, good or bad.

If coaches desire, they can follow Slater’s lead and simply pick a big outside back on the bench.

However, there is another option that won’t change the fabric of the game but does add another dimension.

This option involves making the 18-man part of the bench, so it becomes a five-man bench.

Importantly, keep the number of interchanges at eight and keep the number of players able to be used in the game at 17.

But, don’t have a nominated 18th man at the start of the game. Allow the coach to use the interchanges as they see fit but with the proviso that by the end of the game, only four of the five players on the bench will have participated.

Very simply, the player who misses out is fluid and not fixed.

I suspect in practice, this would see two players held back until around the 60th minute and then the coach would have to commit to the fourth player.

If they get it wrong, the consolation is that they only got it wrong for the last 20 minutes, not the last 73 if you were to lose an outside back at the seven-minute mark.

This approach would remove a bit of pressure off doctors, players and coaches.

It would be a small tweak that would allow the game to stay fundamentally the same but able to accommodate the modern intricacies of bench management brought on by the introduction of HIAs.