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How well do you remember ‘that’ moment, when Australia beat Uruguay in a penalty shootout to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup? That day was November 16, 2005.
133 days after New South Wales beat Queensland to win their 12th State of Origin title – and last to date.
There are a lot of young people who live south of the border who either forget or have never seen New South Wales taste victory. It’s painful to think about.
Game 1 of 2005 saw Queensland take a lead of 19-nil. New South Wales made a brave comeback to lead 20-19 before Johnathon Thurston kicked a late field goal to send the match into golden point.
The Blues were coming out of their own end when Brett Kimorley threw an intercept pass to Matty Bowen, who had started the match on the bench.
He ran away to score, winning the match 24-20 for Queensland and giving them a 1-nil lead in the three match series.
Andrew Johns had missed a lot of footy through injury but was at his best when picked at halfback for the Blues, replacing Brett Kimorely for Game 2 of the series.
‘Joey’ was at his magnificent best and won man of the match honours in the Blues’ 32-10 victory.
The series decider was very much a one-sided affair. Blues winger Matt King bagged three tries in the 32-10 smashing of the Maroons, becoming only the fourth Blues player to score a hat-trick at Origin level.
This series win would be the Blues’ third in a row but last for a long time.
It’s obvious to say a lot has happened in sport since then.
Wests Tigers won the 2005 Premiership, defeating the North Queensland Cowboys 30-16. Benji Marshall had a standout year, helping guide the Tigers to their first title as a joint venture.
In 2005 Sydney Swans won their first flag since the 30s, beating West Coast Eagles by four points. West Coast would go on to get revenge and beat Sydney by a point the next year.
Makybe Diva becomes the first horse to win three consecutive Melbourne Cups and retired after her historic victory.
The A-League commenced its first season a month after the Blues were victorious.
Lance Armstrong retired from cycling after a record seventh Tour de France victory. And we all know what happened last year with all that.
Shane Warne was still bowling leggies for Australia, and to do this day the selectors are still trying to replace him. Hello? Nathan Lyon is going great for Australia.
In 2006 the Commonwealth Games were held in Melbourne, nine months after New South Wales’ last series win.
Nobody has ever tweeted ‘NSW wins State of Origin Series’, at least not genuinely anyway, as Twitter was founded on March 21, 2006.
In 2005 Facebook was still only available to some American universities. YouTube was still in its infancy.
The number one song on the ARIA Charts was Mariah Carey’s We belong together.
Two weeks later the number one song was Axel F, that extremely annoying Crazy Frog song which was so bad, but somehow was also a popular ringtone.
Has pop music gotten better or worse since 2005?
Steve Irwin and Peter Brock were still alive and doing what they loved, but unfortunately were killed in September 2006.
The Beaconsfield Mine disaster was yet to take place. The Cronulla Riots were yet to occur. Microsoft still hadn’t released the Xbox 360. John Howard was still Prime Minister and would be for another two years.
The last Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Sith, had only just hit cinemas and Harry Potter was only up its fourth movie, with four more still to come.
Eight years and eight series on Queensland have dominated State of Origin. New South Wales will be up against it, like every year, but with two games being held in Brisbane, it makes the job a lot harder.
Who knows? Maybe 2014 will be the Blues’ year!
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