Victories in State of Origin football don’t come much more emphatic than the win by the good guys (Queensland) over Evil Incarnate (New South Wales) by a score of 30-0 last Wednesday night. It does however underline how insipid the performance was in the first game.
The NSW media and fans, as well as coach Craig "Bellyache" Bellamy, have turned up the "sour grapes" factor, trying to blame the referee for their massive landslide defeat. Oh how hard life evidently is for NSW when the referee enforces the rules! Obviously they’d much prefer he let them get away with all kinds of cheating in the ruck, dodgy marker defence and offside defensive play all night as he let them in the first game. However, I’d much prefer to see some space for the backs to move and for this so-called "best Qld backline ever" as many have called it to fire some shots in anger. Greg Inglis certainly did the other night, back to his scintillating best, and it’s obvious which style of football is more attractive to the fans. If NSW don’t want to get smashed up again by a similar margin in the decider, then they had better play by the rules, rather than giving away penalties and then whinging and arguing with the ref because he has not let them go.
Willie "nutbag redneck" Mason now looks like a complete goose after the drivel he served up to the media in the leadup to the game. Why wouldn’t you talk to the media after the game Willie? Didn’t you have anything to say? Paul Gallen objects to the fact that Qld have a mortgage on passion in State of Origin football and says that however much the Qld players hate the blue jumper, he has the same hate back "times 1000". Ooooooohh, I bet you hate us even more now Paul, now that your team has had it’s butts well and truly kicked by ours. Greg Bird also got his just desserts for disrespecting the Qld pride earlier, lined up and smashed by Karmichael Hunt and losing the ball. Then he had to have a massive dummy-spit at the ref for ruling correctly. Beautiful to watch.
I say partial redemption at the top though, because it’s now 1 all and there is another match in Sydney to decide the overall winner, and the good guys must also win that one if they are to truly compensate for the meek "un-Queenslander" surrender in game 1. Nothing less than this can resurrect State of Origin which has always been in some sense dead from my perspective since 2004 when the unthinkable happened, Evil Incarnate went ahead on the series wins score. The last 2 years the old passion has burned bright enough to bring it level again, but nothing less than a "three-peat" series win in another 3 weeks will restore the full dignity of the concept, and restore the mighty Queensland to its rightful position of more wins than losses which it so proudly established in the golden age of the 1980s. It’s in enemy territory, on the slippery Sydney Olympic stadium turf which favours a boring style of game, but heck, we clearly have the better team so let’s aim up boys and bring this thing to life again!
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