PQ for CNTDN
One win from greatness
They will forever be remembered as the greatest team to ever play State of Origin, scrap that, Rugby League. The year was 2011 & NSW had the weight of the world, excluding Queensland, on their shoulders. Against all odds they lived to survive & were victorious
in one game!
With the State of Origin series locked at 1-1, next Wednesday the 7th of June will cement one teams name in Origin folk law. Will Queensland continue their never ending domination & kill off the Origin concept or will NSW rise up, as the underdog & shock the Rugby League world, winning a series, from 1-0 down and in Queensland?
As a Queenslander supporter growing up in NSW, I copped it for years as a kid, when NSW winning was not celebrated, it was expected. That is why supporting Queensland was so important to me, the ultimate underdog, the unassuming battler vs NSW, the home of Rugby League and the far superior team. David vs Goliath, I never understood how people could support Goliath, to me it was expected and boring. If David lost twenty times before having his victory, it wouldnt matter, it just made Davids victory that much sweeter.
It keeps getting mentioned, after all these years, all the victories, crushing defeats, the highs and the lows, how little actually separates the teams in victories & points. It has drifted a bit further in the last couple of years but for a concept that is 30 years old, it remains quite close when you think where the pendulum has swung. In the early years Queensland dominated, whether this is because Queensland wanted it more or NSW not understanding the concept, or taking it too lightly, there is no doubting Queensland embraced the concept & deservedly came out on top.
The inevitable then happened with NSW taking the concept seriously, playing with the passion & ferociousness the game was intended to be played with. NSW then had their time to enjoy many years of being champions. The tradition, the hatred, everything the Rugby League hoped State of Origin would be was finally born.
NSW while in an arm wrestle, occasionally, began to edge ahead, with many people including myself thinking that if Queensland didnt win a series soon, Origin could die. The pendulum then swung again, Queensland rising from nowhere, with a new breed, a new generation ready to answer the call of a state, and the game of Rugby League to fight and win. Five years later the same statements were being said in NSW. If NSW didnt win soon, Origin will die. Personally I dont think Origin can die, but with NSW being in the position of having to get back off the ground, with the support of the people actually scared me. As a Queensland supporter you know you are passionate, you know the players are passionate & you know the stories or Queenslands talent being poached, lured to Sydney for large amounts of money the Queensland competition could never afford.
Five years of complete domination by Queensland had me and many others thinking, when will this end, when will NSW say enough is enough? The thing about NSW as a team, and a state is that they never seem to stick together, someone always pointed a finger, and someone always kicked them while they were down. That toxic culture of negativity looked like it would destroy State of Origin, with the only way of representative footy looking interesting was Queensland playing Queensland A, or QLD City vs QLD Country.
The pendulum was moving, it hadnt swung but it had potential with NSW putting in a brave effort in a narrow loss in game one. Game two was big, no matter what the result was going to be, it would either extend the Queensland run to 6 years or it would show the people that the greatest Origin team in history could be beaten by the underdog, David, by NSW.
We now enter game three in Brisbane, the media focusing on Queensland being a state in crisis, Meninga and his fraud of a coaching career. Paul Gallen, formerly the most had man in this universe, and four others, is being spoken of as a future immortal. The pendulum has indeed started moving, whichever way the pendulum decides to go on Wednesday night in Brisbane will no doubt cement one of these sides in greatness.
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