The pinnacle of rugby league in Australia, the Queensland v New South Wales state-of-origin series, will be decided next week in the native AFL code’s heartland of Melbourne.
New South Wales will be coached by Graham Murray, a man who had to enter the deep north of Queensland as chief tactician for the Townsville-based Cowboys club, before earning the right to take the reigns of his home state’s side. The Queenslanders will be led by imposing former player, Mal Meninga, who spent the best part of his rugby career ensconced in Canberra with the Raiders club. So revered was he in the nation’s capital, his foreshadowed tilt at politics in the ACT's Legislative Assembly was set for success, until he pulled out in the midst of a media interview.
The beauty of origin football is that it allows these geographical blips in a person’s career to be conveniently set aside and for the player to be remembered for their finest moments in the code. The considerable downside, as manifested by the “retirement” of the concept of origin football in Australian Rules, is that when married with a prominent and fluid national club competition, the tribal significance of the concept becomes diluted.
Despite recent chatter by opinion shapers within the AFL fraternity, origin football is a long way off any re-introduction, let alone elevation to something other than a quirky sideshow or pre-season tournament. In rugby league where it has had nearly three decades of sustained success, the cracks in the series are apparent for those bothering to look behind the hyperbole produced by the media and administrators (both guided by vested interests) to dissect what is going on.
To understand why the origin series has been the showpiece of rugby league since its introduction in 1980, one must appreciate Queensland’s obsession with beating New South Wales. Queensland-based rugby league historian, Dr Greg Mallory, argues that this attitude is partially derived from the northern state’s response to the “stealing” of local players by poker-machine rich Sydney clubs from the 1950s onwards which saw some of Queensland’s best players thriving in blue jerseys. Juxtaposed by the sunshine state’s well-illustrated social parochialism, the tribal die was cast.
My support for the Maroons was born in the pre-origin days of the 1970s. Despite the Queenslanders’ obvious passion and spirit, our skill levels and professionalism were below par. To get within a handful of points