I suppose now would be a bad time to point out it is just a game…

Here’s a rare foray into sport (don’t worry – there’ll be more politics – my inner-bolshie is getting madder by the day).

I’m not really one for the sporting type activities. I like cricket and I get Olympic fever (both summer and winter and yes, I know, they’re all on performance enhancing drugs etc.) and if I’m bored enough I might sometimes be found watching some sport on the telly.

Really, though, if I’m honest it doesn’t figure largely in my life.

For this reason, I am about to endure a deeply irritating time of year, as the annual happening known as “State of Origin” is about to take place. I’ve put a hyperlink in because I really can’t be arsed doing any research but those of you outside Queensland and New South Wales maybe curious to know what it is exactly.

Anyway, what I do know off the top of my head is that it started some time in the 1980s and I think Queensland might have won it more often than New South Wales. Oh, and it’s a rugby league competition.

So come May every year you cannot turn to any type of mainstream media in Queensland without some mention being made of “the Origin”. The Courier Mail goes berserk, commercial TV stations give it saturation coverage and normally lucid people start talking about the cane toads vs the cockroaches.

Because I originally hail from Perth in Western Australia, the only football code I knew was Australian Rules (I should point out I didn’t follow Aussie Rules but if you say “football” Aussie Rules is what springs to mind). I barely registered that Rugby League existed until some time in the 1990s, I think, when there was a furore over something called the Superleague. I believe Rupert Murdoch had something to do with that.

I remember once phoning a friend of mine one Wednesday night in May only to be chastised for calling with an outraged “how could you call right now?????”. My response was mystified silence and into that silence the friend in question said “The State of Origin is on!! Everyone is watching it”. Well, not everyone….

Anyway, I don’t want to take away from people’s enjoyment of it. As my Dad has said, as Queensland and New South Wales are the only places in the world where Rugby League is the dominant football code, it is kind of like the grand final between the two best teams in the world. It has its own history and lore. I can respect that.

What I can’t respect is how it completely takes over and everyone is expected to be interested and how it has, over the years, taken on a religious fervour that evangelical Christians might think is over the top. I’m not sure what it is like in Sydney, but in Brisbane the commentary is ludicrously and aggressively parochial. Examples? I have a few…they have the alternate commentary on something called Radio Maroon (because the Queensland colour is maroon - geddit?) because apparently the official commentary is biased towards NSW (by biased they probably mean, occasionally the commentators mention that NSW is playing). The first game is on tomorrow but mainstream Brisbane media has been banging on about it for at least the last two weeks. Fifty percent of the sports pages in today’s Courier Mail have been given over to Origin (including a report about the lasting grudges of the series and one full page ad about how to bet on the outcome).  All this before even one game has been played. There is also a story on page three of the paper regarding the Victorian Sports Minister mistakenly saying it was between Queensland and New Zealand. Bless. However, the Courier Mail journos are outraged rather than amused; I suspect their umbrage comes from being reminded that barely anyone outside Queensland and New South Wales gives a rats.

Origin, it seems, is a legend in its own back page of the Courier Mail. Currently there is a brouhaha over the current practice of playing one game in Melbourne. “HANDS OFF!! It’s Our Origin!!!!” they exclaim (Queensland has won the last six series which means ultimate supremacy in…something).

Okay, from what I understand Wally Lewis and Darren Lockyer were the best in the world at what they did (…sorry, I’m drawing a blank) but there are others…

Seriously, the prominence given to this series in terms of Queensland’s sporting achievements is a little bit sad, especially when you consider that there are many born and/or bred Queenslanders who are genuine world-beaters. I’m talking about people like Rod Laver, Kieran Perkins, Greg Norman, Cathy Freeman, Allan Border, Mick Doohan, Roy Emerson, John Eales, Stephanie Rice (young but three, count ‘em, three gold medals at one Olympics), Susie O’Neill and my guess is Sally Pearson will probably join them. Not to mention the most unlikely Olympic gold-medallist ever, Steven Bradbury (hey, he was good enough to get into the final…but really Winter Olympic Gold Medallist from….sub-tropical Brisbane).

So at this time of the year, I have no choice but to hope New South Wales manages to win, just so I don’t have to listen to the bollocks emanating from the Brisbane media.

Yours in perspective