ROGERS RIGHT AT HOME IN ORIGIN
TSS old boy kicks deciding field goal for Maroons on debut in 1999
IT’S that time of year again.
State of Origin is back next week, so get ready for another year of state against state and mate against mate.
But after last year’s heartbreaking loss to the Blues, the Maroons are ready to do what is necessary to win back the crown.
This push comes 20 years after a young player raised on the Gold Coast became an overnight Origin sensation.
Mat Rogers is perhaps better known today for his stint at the Gold Coast Titans a decade later but in 1999 he was just a rookie 23-year-old rugby league player.
The TSS old boy already had more than three seasons under his belt with the Cronulla Sharks, where his father Steve Rogers had previously played and become a club legend.
Mat Rogers got a call-up to the Maroons in May 1999 to make his State of Origin debut.
Only two years earlier he had represented Queensland in the Super League competition’s one-off Tri-Series which was held by the breakaway competition as its answer to the ARL’s classic Origin competition.
Rogers kicked two goals in the 1997 series final game, which NSW won by a single point.
With that heartbreak fresh in his mind, Rogers was keen to make amends two years later.
And in the series opener he proved a formidable presence.
Rogers fought his way through pain to kick a field goal in the 73rd minute and deliver the Maroons a 9-8 victory.
Rogers had been forced from the field with a knee ligament strain in the first half but returned after halftime.
The winger scored all of Queensland’s points for the match, landing four goals and the match-winning field goal.
Rogers was forced to limp into position to kick the penalty goals in the 52nd and 58th minutes.
“It’s certainly different, let me tell you,” he said after the game, which was held at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium. “The crowd certainly got us home. They lifted all the players.”
It turned out that the magic late field goal came just moments after Queensland coach Mark Murray got a message to team captain Adrian Lam to ignore an order to attempt a field goal.
But Rogers was unaware of this and kicked anyway.
“NSW came out firing and it was an incredibly fast game,” Rogers said.
“I hurt the medial ligament and it was sore in the shed but I knew once I came back out that it would be all right for the rest of the game.
“Our forwards were really strong up the middle – boys like (man of the match) Jason Hetherington.”
Lam was over the moon at the win after a tough, close game.
“I thought both defences were excellent tonight,” he said after the game.
“The fact that there was only one try in 80 minutes demonstrated that point.
“The score really reflected the game.
“It was going to be one of those games where everyone was going at each other.”
Queensland was defeated 12-8 in the second game, held in Sydney, though Rogers again displayed his polish by scoring the sole try and landing two goals.
The third and final game of the series was a 10-all draw, which, under the existing rules at the time, meant Queensland retained the Origin trophy after having won the previous series.