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DID you know that the first game of the State of Origin series will be played on Wednesday in Townsville?

Of course you did! As my husband has been kind enough to point out, if I know something about rugby league, then it’s a fairly safe bet that the rest of the planet knows it too. He may be on to something there.

So, in the interests of showing everyone what a smart bunch live in North Queensland, here are some interesting things to tide us all over until Queensland wins on Wednesday.

Did you know that the first ‘State of Origin’ type competition was called for as far back as 1900 when a reporter known only as ‘The Cynic’ wrote in a publication called The Referee that a footballer called Stephen Spragg, who had recently moved to Queensland, should still be allowed to play for his home state of New South Wales?

In fact, an organised competition in rugby league between Queensland and New South Wales had been played from 1908.

In this first game, played at the Sydney Agricultural Ground on 11 July, 1908, the Queenslanders, who did not really even have an organised club competition, were routed in a 43-0 win to NSW.

The Sydney Morning Herald recorded: “If the Australian team depends on Queenslanders to strengthen it, one is afraid it will be found wanting.” (Sydney Morning Herald. 13 July, 1908)

How things change.

1956 provided another historical point of reference in the competition with the introduction into NSW of poker machines, which saw clubs suddenly flush with a huge source of revenue from their ‘one armed bandits’ able to ‘buy’ quality players. Not surprisingly, they ‘bought’ a lot of Queenslanders.

Up to 1956 Queensland had won 25 per cent of the series in which they had played. Between 1956 and 1981, we had only one series win … in 1959.

By 1977, interstate games reached an all-time low when NSW refused to even host a game and both (there were only two then) were played in Queensland.

It may surprise you to know that the Australian Football League would play an important role in kicking off an ‘all new’ State of Origin series when, in 1977, Victoria played Western Australia before a crowd of 40,000 in Western Australia. A spark of excitement was lit and Hugh Lunn (Courier Mail journalist and author), Barry Maranta (to be father to the Broncos) and Maranta’s business partner Wayne Reid persuaded Senator Ron Mcauliffe that the idea would work and Senator Mcauliffe in turn hand-picked the late Dick ‘Tosser’ Turner to become a legendary Queensland Origin team manager.

Reid went on to talk with Kevin Humphreys (NSWRFL) who agreed, subject to conditions.

The Dragons, Roosters and Rabbitohs refused to release their players but Humphreys countered, telling them the games would be used as an official Test selection trial. They backed down.

In 1987 the ARL was ready to take on the world and took a game to Long Beach’s Veterans’ Memorial Stadium, California.

It came on the heels of a series in which NSW won game one at Lang Park and Queensland struck back to win games two and three. It was to be an exhibition match and not count towards the series, so Queensland took it as a bit of a holiday, while NSW was deadly serious taking the game 60-18. Some 12,349 fans attended to watch NSW win.

In 2003 (six years after the event) the ARL declared the match ‘counted’.

In 2011 the NSW league must be wondering how clever it was to have agreed to the series.

In 1979, the late Bob Fulton had called the State of Origin matches “the non-event of the century”.

Really? After all, even I can count and as I see it, since 1982 (when the ‘first senior game’ State of Origin rule was applied) and a ‘best of three’ match series was played, we’ve won 22 and they’ve won 15.

Won’t it be nice to add to the number of wins? We’re overdue for another long winning streak – starting in 2006 we won for nine solid years.

Of course NSW did have that clean sweep in 2000 when it scored 146 points – it may have been just the burr in the saddle that Queensland needed.

Let’s not forget that this year’s coach, Paul Green, took the Cowboys to a premiership win in 2015 and a grand final in 2017 – he knows our paddock and he knows it well. A little insider knowledge to rattle the cages of the NSW players.

Let’s face it, no one knows how to lift a team to greatness like North Queensland and that spirit will be the wings on the Queensland team, helping it to soar to victory.

Remember, Queensland won in another non-capital clash. In 1926 Queensland met NSW on the Newcastle Sports Oval and when the final was sounded, Queensland had scored 26 points to NSW’S 11 – good effort.

Then of course there’s the

Wally Lewis Medal. From 1992 – 2003 this medal was awarded to the Queensland Player of the Series, but since 2003, it has been awarded to the Player of the Series, irrespective of which state they represented.

From 2004 to 2020, 13 Queenslanders have been honoured with this medal, while four NSW players have received it (2004, 2005, 2014 and 2019).

Play well boys.

Good luck from us all.