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The State of Origin series is one of Australia's premier sporting events, playing to sell-out crowds and annually the rating in the top three television programs in New South Wales and Queensland [http://www.oztam.com.au . Origin games are traditionally some of the toughest, hardest-fought matches played in Australia, with both teams maintaining a fierce effort right to the end of the game. Players are selected for the state in which they played their first senior football. Prior to 1980 players were selected for interstate matches on the basis where they were playing their club football. In both 1980 and 1981 there were two interstate matches under the old selection rules and one State of Origin match. The first calls for a state of origin selection policy in interstate rugby came before rugby league was actually played in Australia. In 1900 by a journalist known as The Cynic wrote in ''The Referee'' that star Rugby Union player and recent immigrant to Queensland, Stephen Spragg, should be able to play for his home state of New South Wales . HISTORY Interstate football prior to 1980 Since 1908 Australian Rugby League has conducted an interstate competition between Queensland and New South Wales . Until 1979 each team drew its players form the clubs based in that state. No consideration was given to the origins of the players themselves. The first interstate game was played at Sydney's Agricultural Ground on July 11 1908 , before Queensland had even commenced a club competition. New South Wales easily accounted for Queensland in a 43-0 victory. The local media were unimpressed. There can be no doubt the NSW men are improving a good deal... They cannot be blamed for the farce, for it was nothing else. If the Australian team depends on Queenslanders to strengthen it, one is afraid it will be found wanting. They are quite the weakest lot of footballers I have even seen come down from Queensland. The play needs no detailed description as it was simply a practice match for NSW, and certainly did not advantageously advertise the new game. :- The Sydney Morning Herald , 13 July 1908 Apart from a golden period for Queensland in the 1920s, the interstate series was dominated by New South Wales. From 1922 to 1925 Queensland defeated New South Wales 11 times in 12 matches. At the end of the 1925 season a Kangaroo touring team was to be picked. Instead of announcing an Australian team dominated by Queenslanders, the Australian Rugby League Board Of Control informed the media that the Rugby Football League had decided that the Kiwis would provide stronger opposition, and that there would be no Australian tour. The period spanning 1922 to 1929 saw no Australian team play in Great Britain, the only such hiatus outside the two world wars. The New South Wales dominance of interstate football increased after 1956 when gaming machines were legalised for all registered clubs in New South Wales. This provided New South Wales football clubs with a revenue source unmatched by Queensland clubs. From this time on an increasing number of Queensland players moved to the Sydney competition, becoming ineligible for Queensland state selection. Paul Hogan (actor) famously told a Queensland Rugby League gathering in 1977 that "every time Queensland produces a good footballer, he finishes up being processed through a New South Wales poker machine." Prior to 1956 , Qld had won 25% of series played. From 1956 - 1981 this number dwindled to only 3.8% with only 1 series win, in 1959. The conception of State of Origin football By the 1970s the prestige of interstate matches had been seriously downgraded. Matches were played mid-week, so as not to interfere with the Sydney club competition, and the small crowds in New South Wales were hosted at suburban grounds. Interstate football reached its nadir in 1977 when the New South Wales Rugby League declined to host the Queensland team, and both interstate games were played in Queensland. In 1977, an Australian Rules Football state of origin game was held between Western Australia and Victoria . Queensland Rugby League (QRL) chairman Ron McAullife attended at the invitation of Victorian Football League (VFL) president Dr Alan Aylett . Also in attendance was The Courier-Mail reporter Hugh Lunn , Brisbane Broncos founder Barry Maranta and Maranata's business partner Wayne Reid . All played a part in attempting to persuade McAuliffe that the concept could be used in rugby league. Lunn told McAullife that "you can take the Queenslander out of Queensland, Ron, but you can't take Queensland out of the Queenslander." McAuliffe was initially sceptical. "What if we recall our boys from Sydney to play, and we are beaten. Where would we go from there?" Reid spoke to New South Wales Rugby League president Kevin Humphreys and suggested that a one-off state of origin match could be used as a test selection trial. New South Wales clubs were reticent to support the concept and set two conditions:
Three Sydney clubs remained opposed to the plan: St. George Dragons , South Sydney Rabbitohs and Eastern Suburbs Roosters . As these clubs were refusing to release players Kevin Humphreys threatened to make the game an official Australian Rugby League trial, which would make release mandatory. The clubs backed down. After Queensland lost the first two interstate matches (35-3 and 17-7, the second game in front of only 1,638 Sydneysiders) it was announced that a state of origin match would take place on July 8 at Lang Park in Brisbane. The New South Wales media gave both the event, and Queensland's chance of winning it, little credence, calling the game a "three day wonder". Australia's 1978 captain Bob Fulton called the match "the non-event of the century". Ron MacAullife was, however, now committed to the concept, and vigourously promoted the match. Thousands of tickes were sold before the game had been officially sanctioned. Although interstate matches in Brisbane were still well attended (24,653 had attended the opening match of the 1979 series), few expected the sell-out crowd of 33,210 at Lang Park that saw Queensland convincingly beat New South Wales 20-10. 1981-1986: the early years In 1981 the first two interstate matches were played under the old selection rules. As New South Wales won the first two matches in the series, state of origin selection rules were used once more in the third match. Although New South Wales ran out to an early 15-0 lead in the game, Queensland rallied to win 22-15. The interest generated by this second state of origin match was enough to convince the authorities to play all three games under state of origin rules the following year. From 1982 to 1984 the New South Wales media dismissed the seriousness of the Queensland threat. Queensland was inspired by this, and in each of these years won the series 2-1. In 1985 , under the leadship of captain Steve Mortimer, New South Wales won the deciding the match in front of 40,000 spectators at the Sydney Cricket Ground . In 1986 the Blues were able to go one better and complete the first state of origin whitewash, taking the series 3-0. 1987: American controversy After Queensland had won the 1987 series 2-1, a further game was played in Long Beach, California to showcase Rugby League to the American public. In ''Origin: Rugby League's Greatest Contest 1980-2002'' (2003) Jack Gallaway tells the story: :There was one additional Origin contest played in 1987... The Queenslanders had climbed the mountain and at no point did they take the project seriously in any competitive sense. The State of Origin trophy was safely stowed in the Queensland Rugby League board room at Lang Park , and for the Maroons the visit to the United States was their end-of-season outing, the game an exhibiton... Such was the Blues' disappointment at the loss of the State of Origin series that they would go to any length to restore some vestige of their lost pride. The New South Wales Rugby League heirachy told their men to prepare for the contest as though it was a deciding test match. In 1987 the Australian Rugby League (ARL), New South Wales Rugby League and Queensland Rugby League agreed that the match would count towards the players' individual statistics, but that the match would not count towards the states' overall records. On July 15 , 2003 the Australian Rugby League announced that the fourth 1987 game was to be classified as an official match, and that a win in the state of origin match on July 16 , 2003 would take New South Wales into the overall lead. ARL chief executive Geoff Carr said: "There had been some debate over whether the Origin fixture . . . in 1987 was counted as an official match but a search of ARL records has confirmed the status conferred on that clash by the game's governing body at the time. In announcing the match in Big League in April 1987, Ken Arthurson was quoted as saying 'It's an exciting experiment but the match isn't and won't be billed as an exhibition match'." Ken Arthurson, ARL chief executive in 1987, disputed this, saying: "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind it was an exhibition game and should not count towards official match scores." SELECTION RULES Under state of origin rules players are selected for the state in which they first played senior (or registered) rugby league. Players must also be eligible to represent Australia at international level. This has proved controversial as players, such as Karmichael Hunt , who are eligible for more than one country have chosen to be available for Australia in order to play state of origin. Anomalies # In 1995 and 1997 Super League players were made ineligible for state of origin selection. This included most of Queensland's team, who played for the Brisbane Broncos . The rules were relaxed to allow Queensland to select Adrian Lam who had previously played for Papua New Guinea . # During the 2000 World Cup a number of Australian players were granted dispensations to appear for other nations under the grandfather rule. The players affected were David Barnhill (NSW), Kevin Campion (Qld), Tony Carroll (Qld), Graham Mackay (NSW), Willie Mason (NSW), Luke Ricketson (NSW), Lote Tuqiri (Qld) and Adrian Vowles (Qld) STATE OF ORIGIN RESULTS For full results and statistics, see Rugby League State Of Origin Results And Statistics Overall summary Year by year The table below shows the results of the one-off games of 1980 / 1981 , and the subsequent series in accordance with statistics used by the Australian Rugby League, New South Wales Rugby League and Queensland Rugby League. The colour of the year denotes the team that has won or retained the shield. In years with a drawn series ( 1999 , 2002 ) the shield has been retained by the team that won the previous year.
Super League In 1997 a Super League Tri-series was played between New South Wales, New Zealand and Queensland. The teams were selected using origin rules, and New South Wales and Queensland met twice. These matches do not count towards the official state of origin record.
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