It's rugby league's showpiece, and high-ranked Victorians have made no secret that they want more of it. Yet how much do they know about State of Origin?
Well, if you rely on the Victorian Minister for Sport and Recreation, Hugh Delahunty, possibly not much - unless, of course, you're talking about "State of the Origin".
Delahunty was guest at this morning's media conference before Wednesday night's game one at Etihad Stadium, and managed a few unfortunate mistakes during his speech.
First, he referred to NSW captain Paul Gallen, who was in attendance along with Blues coach Ricky Stuart and his Queensland counterpart Mal Meninga and second-rower Sam Thaiday, as "Paul Callen".
And then this. "All rugby league supporters here today, it's fantastic as Minister of Sport to welcome here to this very special game, the first game of the Queensland versus New Zealand ... New Zealand, that's a good start ... Queensland versus New South Wales in the State of the Origin match."
Delahunty, though, maintained his government was passionate about the contest.
"Like we do in other sports, we want to bring the best of the best here to Victoria," he said. "I know there's a lot of passion up there in NSW and Queensland. But we are very passionate about the fact that we want to support these superstar athletes, the game here. We know it's a big clash, it's state against state, and mate against mate, and we want to see it here on Etihad Stadium."
