REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Thursday, June 4, 2009

NSW sent boys to do a man’s job. State of Origin is no place for boys … but after 80 minutes they were men.

Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium may not have had the same aura as Suncorp or Stadium Australia, but Craig Bellamy’s baby boomers were baptised nonetheless into what Origin warfare is.

They lost 28-18. No surprises there. In fact, Queenslanders, the bookies and even most of NSW knew what was going to happen in the series opener.

The country was in the grips of swine flu, but that did not mean pigs would fly. Reality struck home with the force of a Petero Civoniceva shoulder charge.

As Darren Lockyer limped from his 28th Origin sortie, the 50,967 mostly Melburnians may have cheered the victory, but the majority would not have appreciated its worth.

However, those millions directly north and south of the Tweed would have.

The Maroons won from the unfamiliar position of being favourites. Complacency was to be their biggest danger.

But when Titan

Bull Bailey took the ball from the opening kick-off and was monstered by a sea of maroon it was obvious complacency would not be a problem.

Origin is a game of millimetres as Billy Slater showed when he scored the opening try in the 11th minute just a sliver inside the deadball line. However, just three minutes earlier NSW winger Jarryd Hayne was judged to have overstepped the sideline by the same margin.

Video judges Bill Harrigan and Tim Mander made a crucial call after an eternity of replays.