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Over three decades ago Arthur Beetson gave birth to State of Origin football with the most famous fisticuffs in rugby league history.
On that innuagral night in Brisbane, Beetson grabbed Parramatta team-mate Mick Cronin and let loose. No more would the Maroons be the whipping boys.
Beetson had shown the way.
Last Wednesday night at ANZ Stadium, New South Wales skipper Paul Gallen put a left and a right on the chin of perennial niggler Nate Myles.
For Gallen and the Blues this was their turning point. A moment in time just as important as Beetson’s uppercuts to the face of Cronin. Sure, this all followed a swinging arm that had Myles rightfully bemused. But as soon as Myles stepped up and pushed the Blues captain, all bets were off.
The frenzy since Gallen’s one-two has been downright overkill.
If you have not worked it out yet, the National Rugby League and State of Origin football are two completely separate beasts. There have been and always will be two different sets of rules.
That’s why Origin has worked for so long.
This writer isn’t such a caveman that he can’t see that this is a different era.
But to say that Gallen and Myles’ spotfire last week has besmirched rugby league’s good name is lunacy. It’s why over two million people tuned in, and why even more will watch Origin II.
There is nothing healthy about being punched in the head. But rugby league is a brutally intense sport. When so much is on the line and men’s livelihoods are at stake you will always see friction.
A punch can kill.
But so can a 120 kilogram man running back into a defensive line at a million miles an hour and hurling himself into a swinging arm.
Or perhaps even a defender leading with their head?
What are we really talking about here?
State of Origin is not politically correct, and it isn’t for everyone. But neither is MMA, midget tossing or ice hockey.
It wasn’t just neutrals baying for Gallen’s blood. As you’d expect, Queenslanders were in uproar. How could one of their own be set upon by an animal like Paul Gallen?
But where were those same critics when Parramatta and the Sydney Roosters came to blows two days later at Parramatta Stadium?
Then there were others worried about helpless children around the country being “brainwashed” by the actions of these gladiators. So worried about their kids watching Origin that they fully expected them to go to school the next day and smash their mate in the nose.
What a cop out.
When the infamous Melbourne Cricket Ground brawl of 1995 took place, this writer didn’t hit anyone at school or at footy the following Saturday morning.
The funny thing is last Wednesday’s scrap is far from the last fight we will see in Origin football, so why the whingeing now?
This is State of Origin and this is our game.
You don’t have to like it and you don’t even have to watch it.
But more chance than not you’ll be watching Game II come June 26th.
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