2012 Game 3 State Of Origin

[Giorgio Aguilar]

Playersare selected to represent the Australian state in which they played their first senior rugby league game (either high school or local senior club). Before 1980 players were only selected for interstate matches based on where they were playing their club football at the time. Queensland was not generally competitive under these selection rules, with a total record of 54 wins, 8 draws, and 159 losses, as their smaller economy and ban on poker machines meant that leagues clubs could not compete and the vast majority of elite players ended up playing in the much richer Sydney Rugby League premiership.

In both 1980 and 1981, there were two interstate matches under the old selection rules and one experimental "State of Origin" match. From 1982 onwards a best-of-three match series has been played around the middle of the rugby league season for the State of Origin shield. During the early years the overall series results remained relatively even, but Queensland surged ahead between 2006 and 2017, winning 11 out of 12 series, including a record eight series in a row.

Since the 1908 establishment of rugby league in Australia, the sport's two major states, New South Wales and Queensland, have played representative matches against each other which have continued into the "state of origin" era which began in 1980. The two states' teams are frequently referred to as the Blues and Maroons, reflecting the respective colours of their jerseys. These were the colours of the Australia national rugby league team's jersey until the adoption of the green and gold. The Blues team is administered by the New South Wales Rugby League and the Maroons by the Queensland Rugby League. The New South Wales team are sometimes referred to by the nickname "Cockroaches" and the Queensland team as "Cane Toads"[citation needed], due to names given to them by Barry Muir and Johnny Raper respectively. It was reinforced by a marketing campaign used in the 1980s where the respective teams were caricatured as such.

The first calls for a state of origin selection policy in interstate rugby football came before the schism between the union and league codes eventuated in Australia. In 1900 a journalist known as 'The Cynic' wrote in The Referee that star rugby player and recent immigrant to Queensland, Stephen Spragg, should be able to play for his home state of New South Wales.[1]

Since the beginning of Australian rugby league in 1908, an interstate competition between New South Wales and Queensland has been conducted almost annually (apart from during WWI, Spanish flu and WWII). Until 1982 each team drew its players from the clubs based in that state. No consideration was given to the origins of the players themselves.[2]

The interstate series was dominated by New South Wales, apart from a golden period for Queensland in the 1920s. From 1922 to 1925 Queensland defeated New South Wales 11 times in 12 matches. At the end of the 1925 season, a Kangaroo team was to be picked for touring Great Britain. Instead of announcing an Australian team dominated by Queenslanders, the Australian Rugby League Board of Control informed the media that the Rugby Football League had decided that the Kiwis would provide stronger opposition and that there would be no Australian tour.[4] The period spanning 1922 to 1929 saw no Australian team play in Great Britain, the only such hiatus outside the two World Wars.[5]

The New South Wales dominance of interstate football increased after 1956 when gaming machines were legalised for all registered clubs in New South Wales. This provided New South Wales football clubs with a revenue source unmatched by Queensland clubs. From this time on an increasing number of Queensland players moved to the much stronger Sydney Rugby League competition, which then made them ineligible to play for Queensland in state selection. Paul Hogan famously told a Queensland Rugby League gathering in 1977 that "every time Queensland produces a good footballer, he finishes up being processed through a New South Wales poker machine."[6]

By the 1970s the prestige of interstate matches had been seriously downgraded, in most part due to the fact that a number of Queensland players signed to NSW clubs could not unseat the NSW incumbent and also were not eligible for Queensland selection, so they did not play at all. Matches were played mid-week, so as not to interfere with the Sydney club competition, and the small crowds in New South Wales were hosted at suburban grounds.[13] Interstate football reached its nadir in 1977 when the New South Wales Rugby Football League (NSWRFL) declined to host the Queensland team, and both interstate games were played in Queensland.[7]

Former Queensland captain and Australian vice-captain Jack Reardon, who had later become a journalist, was the first to suggest that Sydney-based Queenslanders should be available for selection to represent their state.[14]

Brisbane Courier-Mail reporter Hugh Lunn, Barry Maranta (the future co-founder of the Brisbane Broncos) [8] and Maranta's business partner Wayne Reid played a part in persuading QRL chairman Ron McAullife that the concept could be used in rugby league.[9] Lunn told McAullife that "you can take the Queenslander out of Queensland, Ron, but you can't take the Queensland out of the Queenslander."[10] McAuliffe was initially skeptical. "What if we recall our boys from Sydney to play, and we are beaten. Where would we go from there?" Reid spoke to NSWRFL president Kevin Humphreys and suggested that a one-off state of origin match could be used as a Test Match selection trial. [11]

Three Sydney clubs remained opposed to the plan: St. George Dragons, South Sydney Rabbitohs and Eastern Suburbs Roosters. As these clubs were refusing to release players, Humphreys threatened to make the game an official Australian Rugby League trial, which would make release mandatory. The clubs backed down.[12]

The interest generated by the experimental state of origin matches of 1980 and 1981 and the potential for financial rewards were enough to convince the authorities to play all three games under the state of origin rules the following year.[14]

Despite the Maroons' success so far in the State of Origin experiments, the New South Wales media dismissed the seriousness of the Queensland threat to the Blues' long-held dominance in series wins. Queensland, under the leadership of immortal captain Wally Lewis, was inspired by this, and for the first three State of Origin series, Queensland won 2 matches to 1.

On 15 July 2003 the Australian Rugby League announced that the fourth 1987 game was to be classified as an official match, and that a win in the state of origin match on 16 July 2003 would take New South Wales into the overall lead.

ARL chief executive Geoff Carr said: "There had been some debate over whether the Origin fixture . . . in 1987 was counted as an official match but a search of ARL records has confirmed the status conferred on that clash by the game's governing body at the time. In announcing the match in Big League in April 1987, Ken Arthurson, the ARL's chief executive in 1987, was quoted as saying 'It's an exciting experiment but the match isn't and won't be billed as an exhibition match'."

As the great Queensland players from the 1980s began to retire from the game, the Maroons struggled with a team of fresh faces and considerable inexperience. 1992, 1993 and 1994 series all went to NSW as the talent and experience of Blues players such as Brett Mullins, Daley and Stuart in the backs and Benny Elias and Bradley Clyde in the forwards gave the Blues the edge when the games were on the line. It wasn't until the upheaval of the Super League war in 1995 that the Maroons were able to again clinch a series.

The Australian game divided in 1997 into two competitions, one run by the ARL and one by the News Limited-owned Super League, and an interstate series was played in each. Under the Super League banner, there was a Tri-Origin series with a New Zealand side added to the competition. The ARL meanwhile stuck to its traditional format. The teams were selected using origin rules, and New South Wales and Queensland met twice. These matches do not count towards the official state of origin record. As with the premiership, players were spread between two representative tournaments as well.

The early to mid-2000s saw New South Wales starting to assert its traditional interstate dominance, causing some critics to question the future of State of Origin. However, this imbalance tipped in the third and deciding game of the 2006 State of Origin series, which is seen as the starting point of Queensland's unprecedented dynasty. Queensland followed by winning the 2007 series, as well as the 2008 series, which made Queensland's streak three series in a row. New South Wales won Game 1 on 21 May 2008, however, Queensland won Game 2 on 11 June 2008, and Game 3 on 2 July 2008. Queensland continued to follow this up by winning the first two games of the 2009 series becoming the first state to win four series in a row.

In 2012, then NRL CEO David Gallop introduced the Under-20s State of Origin for Toyota Cup players which saw New South Wales winning. Queensland went on to win a historic 7th series win in 2012, winning the final game by 1 point.

In 2013, New South Wales defeated Queensland 14 to 6 in game 1, Queensland defeated New South Wales 26 to 6 in game 2, while in-game 3 Queensland defeated New South Wales 12 to 10 to take out the overall Origin title for the eighth consecutive time. The 2013 series set a new State of Origin television rating record for a whole series since the 2001 introduction of the rating system.[17]

The 2023 State of Origin series began in Adelaide with Queensland winning game one after coming from behind in the second half. In game two, Queensland would win 32-6 in Brisbane to claim the series. New South Wales would win game three to avoid a clean sweep. In the wake of another series loss, Brad Fittler resigned as head coach of New South Wales.[28][29]

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