Mal Meninga:
"If you haven't got a successful Queensland side, I think the game [rugby league] is a little bit in jeopardy as well."
The journalist inserted the words "rugby league". Mal was talking about Origin. Origin is Queensland. State of Origin was brought into existence at the insistence of the QLDers. Specifically the QRL. The ARL resisted it for decades. NSW was quite satisfied with the best QLD players running onto the field against QLD, wearing Blues jerseys. That was the status quo prior to 1980. The NSWRL had no desire whatsoever to have a State Of Origin competition. The ARL had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the table, after MANY years of QLD's disgust at the situation.
That IS why when you talk about State Of Origin, you are talking about QLD passion for their state. Without QLD passion there is no State of Origin. There is a long history of NSW playing QLD prior to 1980. It didn't capture anyone's imagination because it was a farce. Beetson and others were forced to play in Blues jerseys against their own state. The QLD public knew it. The NSW public knew it. Few were interested in it, for obvious reasons. State Of Origin was the real deal. With State Of Origin's inception, there could be genuine interest on both sides of the border in the proceedings. Meninga was there for that first Origin game. He played. He knows the passion that those men had for the Series. Mal knows that Origin was born in order that QLDers could show their passion for their State. That was why he intimated that in the quote at the top of this post.
Origin is unsuccessful if the QLD aren't giving it their all. It is QLD's platform. It is QLD's statement of their love of their state. Mal was underlining to his team, just what Origin signified. The QLD fans would always be passionate about the Series. We sold out the QLD venues right through those dark years prior to 2006. The fans might have been rankled that their teams were losing, but they weren't bailing.
The QLD team was letting themselves down. Lockyer needed a 'kick in the butt'. Price and Petero did too. Mal gave them the kick in the butt that they needed. Other QLD legends including Beetson gave the players a spray that year. The QLD team had been underperforming and it was time that someone said "This has to stop." Mal did that. The players took the message on board, kicked almighty freckle in Game 2 2006 and went to Sydney where they had lost the last 10 games with a different frame of mind.
Prior to Game 3 in Sydney, despite QLD trouncing NSW in Game 2( a much bigger win than NSW's Game 2 last year), everyone wrote-off the Maroons. This game was on NSW's turf. NSW had won the last 3 Series. QLD had not won 2 Origin games for 5 years. The Blues were red-hot favourites to win. Thank GOD for Mal saying what he did in the SMH article. He would have said MUCH more to the boys prior to Games 2 and 3. That third game in 2006 was THE best game by a QLD side EVER. All the odds were stacked against them. They were behind on the scoreboard deep into the second-half of the game. At that stage of Game 3 no-one other than the QLD Origin camp, the QLD players themselves and the die-hard fans would have even given them a chance of staving-off the NSW fourpeat.
Mal's kick in the butt worked. QLD rallied, and on the back of THAT game; Game 3 2006. Upon that game, this QLD dominance, this unprecedented run of consecutive Origin victories was founded. Not the belting that the QLDers had given NSW in Game 2. It was that rally from being behind on the scoreboard in Game 3 2006, that QLD have looked to for the last seven years for inspiration.
That is why the quote of Mals I placed at the top of this post has EVERYTHING to do with what we are discussing on this thread. Without QLD being competitive, Origin is diminished. Not dead. Not finished. "....a little bit in jeopardy".
Thank You Mal.
