Crank up the tension to get people switched on

IN THE heavy moments before Game I Wayne Bennett was being interviewed under the grandstand and, as nearly always happens now, the conversation turned to the syrupy kind of storytelling that infects Origin nowadays.

Bennett was Queensland coach.

“Here we are after 40 years,” he was asked. “And they said Origin would never make it.’’

Bennett understands Origin like few others and most felt his answer endorsed how the series is advancing, missing it entirely that his reply was a warning shot to the NRL and those who promote the game.

And so long as they keep it mate versus mate, he replied, back as and hate versus hate, it will last another 40 years.

The tribalism, Bennett knows, is why Origin works.

But the tribalism is only half the story.

The truth is in the numbers. While the Game I ratings were explained away as a downturn from COVID there was a time when Origin drew four million viewers across the country – numbers it hasn’t drawn for years.

Last week it drew little more than two million.

Those two million missing people have not all died. They’re in bed, or watching some renovation show.

Origin figures have been in decline for some years. There are several reasons why.

Perhaps the place to start is when former chief executive Dave Smith decreed that punching would automatically end in a sin-bin in 2013.

It did not matter that there was a loosely applied rule already, or that Smith’s greater intention was to take the ban on punching from Origin football into club football.

Smith’s intention was good. He believed that without the violence those prepared to watch Origin might also start watching club football.

The opposite has happened. The fight was part of the Origin story, and is what brought the hate versus hate that Bennett believes is key to the series’ success.

Tension is the key. Fans knew the game was played on a tinderbox. Any tackle, any scrum, could erupt in a brawl.

And if it didn’t happen in this game it only heightened the tension for the next game.

That tension brought the fans to the contest, especially the periphery fans.

Nobody wants to see bodies carted from the stadium but it is worth knowing that in the history of Origin only Steve Price was ever knocked out.

Many fondly recall the Andrew Johns-jamie Goddard fight where, respectfully, they didn’t break the skin on a rice pudding.

When Chris Close lost his jumper in 1984 the greatest damage happened in the grandstand, his wife mortally embarrassed at his gut out on display. Each, though, brought tension that remains today.

Wally Lewis (pictured) inspired a state, and breathed life into Origin, because viewers could reach out and touch his hatred for NSW.

Last week’s Origin was little more than a bloated club game. Nothing from Game I will make the highlight reel when Origin reaches its next great milestone in 10 years.

The narrative is too passive. The richness of Origin, from which it was built, was that every game had its story and every story was genuine.