Divisive individual: Robbie Farah. Credit:Getty Images The outrage on social media on Thursday morning perfectly illustrates why, even as fewer and fewer players are eligible for NSW and Queensland (the Blues have been reduced to picking players out of position the way City has had to over the past decade), the mass public appeal of the series remains undiluted. Origin was invented purely for Queensland to stick it to the man – "the man" being the more famous, powerful and premiership club-heavy know-it-alls from the south. And remarkably, after 36 years, there remains enough about the self-styled 'premier state' that compels the Blues to still play the role of 'the man' to an Academy Award standard. There has been the constant switching of players, the criticism from former coaches and stars, the colourful comments and actions of long-term captain Gallen and any number of other metaphors for the dog-eat-dog nature of life in Sydney.

By comparison, the Maroons – with none of the comic book stuffiness and conceit of a state where just about every globally recognised Australian historical landmark resides - are always underdogs, always united, always wronged (check out the penalty count) and always heroic (if not stoic). But NSW's role as the pantomime villain of this timeless morality tale was under threat when Gallen kicked a conversion to end his interstate career on Wednesday night and the Blues actually got a win. NSW have also had a good run in the lower age group Origins of late, indicating better times lay ahead. However, the universe doesn't like having its furniture rearranged in such a dramatic way. The universe wouldn't allow for the natural order of things to be tampered with.

So the Gods of Hubris demanded that the Blues ignore Cameron Smith's acceptance speech and instead thank their own long-suffering fans, leaving them labelled disrespectful. And the pressures of sport's answer to a two-party system gave us these sort of quotes afterwards. Gallen: "I saw the (first) game on replay, the Josh Morris 'no-try' and it could have gone either way. Then you go back to game two Jenko just touches that ball'. The games are so close. They are close, they are really close. We stood up to Queensland tonight." Daley: "If Queensland had the same number of changes (as us), would they be the same team? I don't know." Surely there is a hint of delusion, of self-hypnosis in these rather optimistic musings?

NSW have finished second in a two-team competition for 10 of the last 11 years. That's the bottom half of the competition. The NRL equivalent is missing the finals in every year but one of the last 11 seasons. What would have happened to an NRL club and those involved with those results? They'd end up like Parramatta. A long, long run of success for Queensland can't dent Origin's appeal. A personality transplant, leaving NSW self-confident and unified and Queensland bickering and prone to unpredictable petulance, might actually wreck it. Late on Wednesday night your writer hosted a Facebook Live chat on League HQ's page by asking readers whether 'Presentation-gate' will harm Gallen's legacy of NSW captain. It won't. Who even remembers Andrew Johns brushing Jason Taylor in similar circumstances at fulltime in a game at Parramatta Stadium, simply because Newcastle lost?

Another enduring metaphor regarding the reason for Origin's existence: Queensland are the Harlem Globetrotters, NSW the Washington Generals, an exhibition team that beat them only six times in 24 years. The Generals were the Globetrotters' patsies; dunces to their genius, boring to their excitement, anonymous to their glamour. But even Origin Godfather Senator Ron McAuliffe could not have foreseen this – that one day, despite the Globetrotters' brilliance, Washington would start cheering for the Generals. Book here Loading