Australian and New South Wales captain Boyd Cordner has put forward an audacious idea if the NRL season can’t be started by the September deadline.

The three-time premiership-winner has floated the idea of an extended State of Origin series.

“You need some sort of rugby league, just to keep the dream alive,” Cordner told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“If September 1 does come around and we haven’t played any footy and we can’t play, why not pick a squad of 30 players for NSW and Queensland, isolate them, then play a five or seven-game Origin series when fans can come and watch.

“The crowd and spectacle is what makes Origin what it is. It’s so patriotic, you’ve never seen a rivalry like it. Without fans it wouldn’t be the same. We’d still play because you want to play Queensland any time, anywhere, but for rugby league moving forward you’d need a crowd to play it.”