State Of Origin

History

The history of State Of Origin dates back to 1980, although interstate rugby league has a history that dates even before this year.

The series started out with Queensland losing the first two interstate matches in Sydney. They lost by the margins of (35 – 3 in the first game and 17 – 7 in the second). The second game had an attendance of 1,638 which was critized for being well below what officials were hoping for.

The third game was to be taken to Lang Park (now known as Suncorp Stadium) in Brisbane. A typical media beat-up occured and Queensland were written off before the game had even begun. Bob Fulton was quoted as calling the match ‘the non-event of the century’. He was later left to eat his words. Thousands of people had purchased tickets before the game was even sanctioned with the result being a sellout crowd of 33,210 die hard Queensland supporters.

Arthur Beetson was one of many heroes that day as Queensland lead the way and proved the haters wrong by winning the match 20 – 10. Even with Queenslands success in the early days of State Of Origin, the New South Wales media still continued to fill their state with doubt claiming Queensland were of no threat to the blues dominance.

Wally Lewis, one of the few immortals of Rugby League captained Queensland to the first two series wins, winning two matches to one.

It wasn’t until 1985 when Steve Mortimer took over the captaincy of the blues, did New South Wales finally get a series win on board. The blues won in spectacular fashion infront of 29,068 fans at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

In 1986, the blues took full advantage of their player roster and confidence, winning the series 3 – 0.

1987 saw the event taken overseas to Long Beach in California. Although the typical series was played out in Australia with Queensland winning two games to one. The game was taken to Long Beach in California for to market and publicise the game overseas. The game was played infront of 12,349 fans with New South Wales clinging to a 30 – 18 historical victory.

In 1988 & 1989, Queensland formed one the greatest halves pairing of the decade in Allan Langer and Wally Lewis. This elite combination of two greats saw the Maroons win both the 1988 and 1989 series 3 – 0.

The 1990s

It took New South Wales to find their own killer halves combination in Ricky Stuart and Benny Elias before the blues took back a series win. The early 90s proved to be a disaster for the Maroons as many of their workhorse players were retiring from State Of Origin football. This resulted in the Blues taking out 3 consecutive series in a row (1992, 1993 & 1994).

The Super League War also created problems for Queensland as many of the players from the Brisbane Broncos and other Queensland representatives were not representing the ARL, thus making them illegible for selection. Despite this draw back, the Maroons dug deep and secured a 3 – 0 whitewash series win in 1995.

In 1996, all off-field contracts were disregarded and many assumed this would work in Queenslands favour and hand them another series win. This was not the case with New South Wales going on to win the series 3 – 0.

1997 saw things get a little bit more complicated with the Super League running a Tri-Origin series which included New Zealand as a team. The Australian Rugby League stayed true and kept its original structure.

Finally, many people were glad to see the end of the Super League War in 1998 when the Super League and the Australian Rugby League formed the NRL. The series was as many assumed – a massive success where Queensland won the final match decider 2 – 1 infront of 39,000 fans at the Sydney Football Stadium.

The first series draw occured in 1999 and was an ironic way to end the 1990s State of Origin era, but because Queensland were series winners from the past year, they retained their bragging rights of interstate champions.

In the current era of 2000, we have witnessed some of the most heartfelt wins and losses of State Of Origin. We have seen players put their fellow club members aside to don either their maroon or sky blue jersey and up until now we have seen Queensland make history be securing four successive series wins.