This may be controversial for someone south of the Tweed to say this but for State of Origin to survive and indeed prosper in the future, NSW need to lose 3-0 in this year’s series.
Allow me to explain. I love NSW but more importantly, I hate to see Queensland win.
It is a hatred that had it’s birth watching NSW lose series after series in the early 1980’s as Queensland was exacting revenge after the many floggings at the hands of NSW teams – often filled with Queensland born and bred players.
Make no mistake. I hated Wally Lewis.
I hated Mal Meninga.
Dowling, Vautin, Conescu, Miles, Close, Langer…I hated them all.
And after every game that they helped Queensland win, after every series where ‘The King’ lifted the trophy…my hatred grew and grew – especially when I heard that old chestnut about ‘Maroon Spirit’.
As I grew older however, things changed.
I understood that Wally Lewis truly IS one of the game’s Immortals; a player the likes of which we will never see again.
I also grew to appreciate the fact Mal Meninga IS one of the greatest players ever to captain Australia and is fully deserving of being named in the centres in last year’s ‘Team of the Century’.
I can even acknowledge that Darren Lockyer is in the upper echelon of today’s players – all of this comes with age, acquired knowledge and a degree of common sense and reason.
What hasn’t changed however is my hatred for Queensland!
So come Wednesday it will still be the same. My blood pressure will go up with every tackle, my pulse will start to increase and the volume of my shouting at the TV will become louder.
So much so that despite my earlier assertion that NSW need to lose this series ‘for the good of the game’, I still want the new generation of Blues to grind Queensland into the dirt and make sure they know who the number one State truly is!
And that is what is wrong with the current state of affairs. We have a generation of supporters (dare I say Gen Y?) who grew up with the Blues domination of Origin football in the late 90’s, early 00’s. Where NSW winning League’s ultimate representative prize was commonplace.
They have not experienced the pain of seeing events like Dowling catching a Lewis kick off the crossbar to score under the posts in 1984.
Or Lewis carrying five NSW players over the line to win in 1989 after half the Queensland side were injured and had no chance of winning.
Or Mark Coyne scoring the ‘Miracle’ try to win in 1994.
They also don’t have this deep seeded expectation of Queensland scoring just before halftime – especially when NSW are in front!
No folks, this current generation did not have to go through any of this painful history, which has placed in me ‘seeds of hate’ which bloom every winter with the sight of a maroon jumper.
There is no ‘care factor’ and when asked whether it bothers them that Queensland could win a fourth straight series, the term ‘Whateverrrrrr!’ comes out of their mouth.
So in order for Origin to continue to thrive and prosper, it is the turn of Smith, Slater, Inglis and Folau to start being despised – rather than be admired and cheered for their individual skill and genius.
It is the turn of Lockyer and Thurston to be scorned upon the same way that Lewis and Langer were in series past.
It is time to pass the ‘torch of anger’ to a new generation of Blues supporters.
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