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Opinion
Those of us who are old enough will recall that State of Origin, aka “Australian sport’s greatest rivalry”, was born thanks to the agitation of Queenslanders who were understandably tired of watching the annual flogging dished out to the Maroons by NSW state teams often featuring star players born north of the border.
These players were plying their trade in the much more affluent Sydney competition, including the likes of Arthur Beetson, Rod Reddy, Kerry Bousted, Rod Morris, Steve Hage, Paul Khan and John Ribot, all of whom turned out for NSW in the 1978 and 1979 interstate series instead of their state of birth.
By any measure Origin was a wonderful concept, “state v state and mate v mate” and a chance to see once and for all which state produced the best footballers.
It really couldn’t be any simpler, as regardless of where you were playing, if you were born in Queensland you wore a maroon jersey and if you were born in NSW you donned the sky blue.
State pride took precedence over club affiliations, and it was up to every Queenslander and every New South Welshman to do whatever it took to win for their state.
Unfortunately, in game one of the very first three-game Origin series in 1982, something strange happened that tainted the purity of Origin, something that you’d think that only Queensland’s shonky New Zealand-born Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen could come up with – the Maroons picked a New South Welshman!
Untimely injuries meant that they were short of a hooker, so they selected Murwillumbah-born Dragons rake John Dowling, and the blurring of the border had begun.
Now I know that Murwillumbah is about as close to the Sunshine State as you can get without becoming a cane toad, but what happened to the “origin” part of the title that Queensland were so keen on?
Dowling did the job for the Bananabenders as they won the closely fought first series 2-1, and a tradition had been born.
When it comes to State of Origin, Queensland were prepared to forget about state pride and bend their borders if it suited them.
Of course, Dowling was just the first of many “adopted” Queenslanders to wear the maroon jersey, and at last count some 20% of the 213 players to represent QLD since 1980 were born anywhere else. So much for state pride.
Xavier Coates is tackled. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
To illustrate, check out this handy team of imports who’ve all run out for Queensland (the player’s place of birth and number of Origins played for Queensland are in brackets):
Fullback: Robbie O’Davis (Tenterfield NSW, 12) – A Novocastrian through and through who spent 13 years with the Knights and only ventured north of the border as an adult when playing a home game for Queensland. Another Knight in Kalyn Ponga (Port Hedland WA, 8) probably wouldn’t be available anyway, and Julian O’Neill (Hornsby NSW, 10) was last seen lurking in the team’ hotel corridor.
Wingers: There’re quite a few interlopers to choose from here, but let’s go for a couple of freakish aerial specialist in Xavier Coates (Port Moresby PNG, 10) and Israel Folau (Minto NSW, 8) just to make the game exciting. The likes of Murray Taulagi (Auckland NZ, 6), Mat Rogers (Caringbah NSW, 5) and Lote Tuqiri (Namatakula Fiji, 6) will provide good back-up in the event of injury.
Centres: If you want a couple of hardhead foreigners in the centres then look no further than Tonie Carroll (Christchurch NZ, 18) and Will Chambers (Gove NT, 13). Carroll was ultimately so confused about his Origin that he managed to play Test football for Australia and NZ, although fortunately not at the same time. Willie Tonga (Canberra ACT, 8) was another contender here.
Five-eighth: When it comes to “Queensland” players surely there’s none better than Greg Inglis (Kempsey NSW, 32) who has scored more tries for Queensland than any other New South Welshman.
Halfback: As the crow flies PNG is a mere 150km from the QLD coast which explains why banana benders might think it’s one of Queensland’s islands, you know, like the Whitsundays, and why Adrian Lam (Rabaul PNG, 14) wears the number seven in this muti-lingual team.
Props: Way too many choices here so let’s just cut to the chase and go with a past Queensland legend, and Fiji’s favourite son, in Petero Civoniceva (Suva Fiji, 33) and a current Maroon enforcer from country NSW in Tino Fa’asuamaleaui (Orange NSW, 12). I’ve saved a couple of big boppers for the bench and the rest of the blow-in front-row contenders in Craig Smith (Kaitaia NZ, 3), Moeaki Fotuaika (Gisborne NZ, 9), Antonio Kaufusi (Matahau Tonga, 1), Francis Molo (Auckland NZ, 2), Christian Welch (Sydney NSW, 6), Joe Ofahengaue (Auckland NZ, 3) and Brad Thorn (Mosgiel NZ, 11) can all take a number.
Tino Fa’asuamaleaui. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Hooker: Wayne Bartrim (Hat Head NSW, 9) takes the dummy half role ahead of the Dragons’ rake from the 1980s in John Dowling (Murwillumbah NSW, 3).
Second-rowers: Queensland has used so many imported back rowers over the years that it’s hard to know where to start, or where they’re from, but why not a couple of my favourite New South Welshmen in the uncompromising Michael Crocker (Sydney NSW, 13) and the tireless Matt Gillett (Macksville NSW, 20). There’s no room for Jeremiah Nanai (Auckland NZ, 8), Scott Sattler (Sydney NSW, 1), Jaydn Su’a (Auckland NZ, 6), Ben Te’o (Auckland NZ, 7), Neville Costigan (Rabaul PNG, 6), Chris Flannery (Cooma NSW, 10) and Felise Kaufusi (Auckland NZ, 17).
Lock: Who else but the number one fake Queenslander! himself in Billy Moore (Tenterfield NSW, 17).
Bench: Plenty of power and impact on the bench with one of Queensland’s favourite Kiwi sons in Josh Papali’i (Auckland NZ, 23), big Jacob Lillyman (Richmond NSW, 14), Sam Thaiday (Sydney NSW, 29) and the Queenslander from the furthest north in Chris Phelan (Portlaoise Ireland, 2).
Coach: Graham Lowe (Auckland NZ, 6)
An impressive line-up, right, and who needs anyone from Queensland?
Would NSW stoop so low as to choose players born outside the state … absolutely not … wouldn’t happen. NSW only give the treasured blue jerseys to players born in the premier state.
Of course, the more petty and pedantic reader among you might point out that NSW started it when they selected Toowoomba born Peter Sterling at halfback in 1981, but clearly this was the result of an unavoidable clerical error rather than any deliberate attempt to besmirch the very concept of Origin.
Presumably, the same human error resulted in the subsequent NSW selection of the likes of James Tamou, Willie Mason, Ken Nagas, Junior Paulo, Mario Fenech …
I wonder where this year’s Queensland team will be from.
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