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State of Origin, more than any Australian sporting event, is a contest built on the foundations of myths and legend.
And just like the Brothers Grimm sent children of the early 19th century to bed with vision of magic and mysticism racing through their heads, so to do Queensland kids get tucked in to tall stories of the mighty Maroons of yesteryear.
Below are five of the Queenslanders’ favourite tales which they never tire of regaling the nearest blue blood with.
5. That first game
Sometimes rugby league is about more than just what happens on the field. Sometimes it is about right versus wrong.
By 1980 the old residential interstate system had long since broken down, yet for years decimated Queensland sides were fed as cannon fodder to their own in front of seven drunk blokes at Leichardt Oval.
Something needed to be done, and State of Origin was the proposed solution.
But would it actually work? Would anyone care? And would Queensland finally shut up when they lost?
Well yes, yes, and we’ll never know, because on that first night at a packed Lang Park a stoic Arthur Beetson wiped some chalk across his chest and then promptly wiped the floor with the Blues.
Magic.
4. Wally Lewis ‘89 Try
The Second game of the 1989 Origin series at the SFS was one of the most brutal ever played, with Queensland losing Allan Langer with a broken leg, Mal Meninga with a fractured eye socket and Paul Vautin with an elbow injury by half-time.
In a game that Queensland would eventually win with twelve men and drew comparison to the famous 1914 Rorkes Drift Test match, Lewis would prove beyond doubt that he was truly the ‘king’ of Origin with a brilliant individual 40m try that he had no right to score.
This effort came to personify the much lauded Queensland spirit, and almost single handily earned Lewis the right to tell Dad jokes on the Brisbane Evening News bulletin.
3. Alfie’s Comeback
The 2001 Origin series was an intriguing battle. A host of fresh faces invigorated Queensland in game one, before NSW took the second match just as comfortably.
Stalemate.
Needing an ace in the hole, Queenslandcoach Wayne Bennett launched a daring undercover mission to smuggle mercurial halfback Allan Langer back from the UK to guide his team’s talented youngsters.
Far from being worried NSW laughed off the move as a stunt, only to find themselves down by twenty at the break and eventually on the end of a 40-14 hiding.
Darren Lockyer may have taken man of the match, but it was Alfie’s name that was chanted long into the night…a chant started by Bennett himself!
2. 1995 series victory
There are underdogs and then there are the 1995 Queensland Maroons, who if they were an actual dog would have been a flatulent, grey at the muzzle, pathetically trying to catch the eyes of passers by at the local RSPCA shelter.
Devoid of Super League aligned talent the Maroons selectors cobbled together the blokes left over, the truth being that even the most stoic Queensland fans expected a team containing a disturbing number of South Queensland Crushers to cop a pasting.
While the Blues were busy debating whether to go for the Dom Perignon or Verve Clicquot post series whitewash, Queensland set about building a team spirit that propelled them to a 3-0 series victory which Disney Studios would later reject for a film for being ‘too unrealistic’.
1. Miracle try
The early nineties weren’t a great time for Queensland sides, and the pain looked like continuing in game one 1994 with the Blues holding a comfortable 12-4 lead late in the 75th Minute.
What then followed was five minutes that would eternally haunt Blues fans and a try that, well, I could try to explain it, I really could. But I just wouldn’t do it justice.
Take it away Rabs!
Queenslander!
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