Early days: Arthur Beetson plays for Queensland in the first State of Origin. Now, with the game score Queensland 53, NSW 44, the Maroons can afford to count California. In fact, the only thing they are counting is whether than can win 10 series or go after St George’s premiership record of 11. Oh, and the 100th game is played in Brisbane, another reason the 1987 game suddenly registers. You can be sure that if Wednesday night’s match was in Sydney, the total tally would be 99, with the following one in Brisbane being the 100th. They will call upon a servile Brisbane media to install themselves as underdogs, despite having won eight consecutive series with basically the same team. Not even Rambo goes that long without reloading. The QRL has changed state and national borders to suit. It has raided NSW and New Zealand for Origin players and even reached up to Papua New Guinea to claim Kumuls captain Adrian Lam. There is a deeply entrenched psychological reason why Queensland considers PNG part of their territory. It dates from World War II, when the federal cabinet drew up what was called “the Brisbane line”, meaning everything south of the Queensland capital would be defended and everything north surrendered to the Japanese. Queenslanders never forgot this and when the war was won, they declared everything north of Brisbane (including Lam) was theirs and everything south was ours. That is why they say, “The only good thing to come out of NSW is the road to Brisbane.” The hatred extends to Victoria, so they are reluctant to surrender Origin matches to Melbourne. Sometimes this disturbed mindset seeps into NSW.

Billy Moore, the North Sydney forward who originated the “Queenslander” chant as he raced from the Maroons dressing room onto the field, grew up in Tenterfield. South Sydney’s Greg Inglis (ex Kempsey) has been quoted saying Queensland traditionally treats indigenous players better than NSW. All historical references to Queensland and “redneck state” should immediately be erased. Queensland is equally skilled at changing the future. Remember when they announced a winger as TBA for the second Origin match in 2002? The Broncos’ Lote Tuqiri had been charged with a grade 1 dangerous throw. If he had been named in the Maroons team, he would have been stood down from the Broncos match and served his suspension in the Origin game. By naming him for the Maroons after the Broncos match, he served his suspension in a club game he never intended to play and was eligible to play for Queensland. The QRL is equally skilled at manipulating contracts. A couple of years ago, the ARL secured VB as the sponsor of the Origin series, while Queensland retained their association with traditional sponsor, XXXX. This is acceptable, except that the QRL also sold XXXX the signage to Suncorp Stadium, gazumping VB. Queensland make much of QRL president Ron McAuliffe taking Arthur Beetson from Parramatta’s reserve grade team and choosing him to captain the Maroons in that first Origin game in 1980. His Maroon No.11 jumper will be retired on Wednesday night, despite him playing 17 games for NSW and one for Queensland. Yet McAuliffe did not support Beetson as Australian coach when Frank Stanton was chosen for the position a couple of years after that first Origin match. Then, when Wayne Bennett returned to coach the Maroons, Beetson was sacked as a Queensland selector. When Arthur died of a sudden heart attack, who was called to identify the body? Beetson’s great friend, Tom Raudonikis, the captain of NSW in that first State of Origin match. Loading