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Jacko, The Axe, and the faceless men of Queensland Origin glory

Ben Hunt - falling upwards into an Origin jersey. (AAP Image/ Action Photographics, Colin Whelan)
Expert
17th June, 2014
4

Wally Fullerton-Smith. Wayne Bartrim. Dallas Johnson. These are but a few of the faceless men on whom Queensland’s State of Origin mythology has been built.

For every Shane Webcke there’s a Gary Larson. For every Michael Hancock there’s an Adam Mogg. For every Mal Meninga there’s a Michael Hagan.

And so on and so forth, until the only logical conclusion is that achieving underdog status isn’t so much a side-effect of Queensland team selection, but a KPI when the time comes to write names on the whiteboard in Choppy Close’s rumpus room.

MORE ORIGIN:
>> O’CONNELL: Why NSW will win Origin 2
>> [WATCH] Highlights from Game 2 2013
>> PRENTICE: Why Queensland will win Origin 2
>> Roar preview for State of Origin Game 2
>> [WATCH] Highlights from Game 1 2014

Queensland’s storied Origin history is littered with players who would be flat out getting a run in a City-Country game, even after half of New South Wales had pulled out with a variety of niggling ailments.

On the flipside of that you’ve got Shaun Fensom, still yet to earn a Country jersey, who’d likely have two winning Origin series to his name if he were born north of the border, or even just played a few seasons of junior footy in Bowraville.

Which, in a roundabout way, brings us to Game 2 of State of Origin 2014. The biggest game in Origin history since the last one, but only until the next one, and then the next one after that, and so on and so forth until Queensland next lose successive series and the concept is declared dead.

Mal Meninga and the Queensland selectors named any NRL player who’s so much as spent a weekend at Fraser Island in their squad for Game 2, and the scoffing from south of the border has been on in earnest ever since.

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When the smoke finally clears and Big Mal instructs Michael Hagan to put the mirrors away, chances are the Queensland 17 will line up much the same as it did in Brisbane three weeks ago. But if Ben Hunt does have to step in for Daly Cherry-Evans, or Billy Slater’s suspect shoulder or GI’s ankle syndesmosis (whatever that is) flares up, the Maroons have the greatest Origin cameos of all to inspire them.

When Wally Lewis was ruled out of Game 1, 1988 through injury, he was the only man who’d donned the Queensland No. 6 since Alan Smith earned the honour in the seminal 1980 encounter. The selection of enigmatic centre Peter Jackson at five-eighth was met with bemusement in most quarters at the time, but Jacko played out of his skin to steer Queensland to a famous 26-18 victory.

In 1995, when Trevor Gillmeister led a team of Nevilles so faceless that their own mothers barely recognised them in maroon, not even an antibiotic drip could keep him from the field in Game 3. If the doctors had insisted the drip remain in, he may well have amputated the arm with an axe and told coach Paul Vautin it was only a flesh wound.

Nineteen years later, with the Blues 1-0 up in the series and the Queenslanders again at sixes and sevens, New South Wales fans are already practicing – or perhaps more accurately, learning – their victory chants. The Sydney media are declaring one of their own as the most influential Origin player since The King. The Nine Network’s TVCs give you the impression that only one side will actually take the field at ANZ Stadium tonight.

Optimistic Twitter types even have #oneinarow on the brink of trending globally.

Which is to say, Queensland have the enemy exactly where they want them.

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Bring on the decider.

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