Well done to anyone who can curate a highlights package for State of Origin Game 1.
Taking nothing away from the 34 players who took the ground, the battle is uncompromising, tough and would take an enormous physical toll on the body. Though as a spectacle, Origin has become flat.
The contest has become as tired as the players would be after 80 minutes. The product has been diluted.
More from State of Origin 1:
» Five talking points
» The big issues examined
» The Liebke Ratings
» Laurie Daley drops a post-Origin bombshell
» State of Origin Game 1 full time: Queensland hold on to win
» All the action in our live blog
In past years, the opening exchanges of State of Origin were something to get genuinely excited about – the first hit up, the ferocity of the contest and the odd all in brawl. These are the moments that make up the footage used tirelessly, year after year, in pre-game hype packages.
There’s a reason this footage is recycled, because now, the opening twenty minutes are like any other game.
Paul Gallen is penalised for hitting Matt Scott around the chest, Adam Reynolds is penalised for a lifting tackle, and the traditional ‘softening up’ period would be better described as simple, conservative rugby league.
After the uprising of journalists, soccer mums and school principals demanding that the punch and shoulder charge be eradicated from the game, State of Origin has become just another game – with more niggle.
The brutality that helped make it different from club football and created its legend has been removed. The result is the dour contest we saw tonight. Limited highlights, no real excitement, and no ‘Origin moments’.
The above aren’t the purists of rugby league. They are the three-game a year, State of Origin fans, who annoy you by asking who’s who and if North Sydney still have a team. The people governing rugby league buckled to this minority fan-base, and the biggest casualty is State of Origin.
You would expect after making the changes to please these ‘fans’, the NRL would be experiencing prosperity in junior rugby league as well as rising crowd figures especially in the female demographic.
Sadly, the rushed reactions have diluted State of Origin, with the true fans and NRL clubs the ones suffering. For six weeks now, Origin will take centre stage and after tonight’s game, it’s certainly not worth it.
Post game, the match was described as gritty, predictable, not pretty and like losing your virginity (thanks, Sam Thaiday). It’s not how you want to describe the crown in the jewel product that is the envy of every rival code in Australia.
If State of Origin is to remain the showcase event in rugby league, more leeway needs to be given to the players in terms of physicality.
The governing body needs to watch how State of Origin is promoted, and realise how contradictory it looks that the bulk of the footage is promoting aspects of the game that are now illegal over a Gladiator-like soundtrack.
Allow the physicality to return without the interference of referee’s yelling ‘shot clock is on’, and allow the players to deliver the product that they did so well for just over thirty years.
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