Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble
By King Cane Toad
It’s a great time to be a Queenslander.
The sun is shining brighter, the colours of the flowers seem more vivid, the weather is warm and, oh, did I mention that the Maroons won Game Three in the State of Origin.
State of Origin was born in 1980 and in 45 years of Origin history, Queensland have now held up the shield 27 times. The Blues, who it seems go into each series as the perennial favourites, have held the trophy aloft only 18 times.
To steal a line from a Mac Davis song from the year of the first Origin match, “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble, when you are perfect in every way”.
And that was the case in Game 3 this week. What a win it was. In case you were locked in Donald Trump’s dungeon, Queensland didn’t just win, we treated the Cockroaches like Trump treats illegal migrants.
The final 24-12 scoreline was in fact flattering to NSW, with the Cockroaches slinking over in the corner for a consolation try in the final minute while the Queenslanders were discussing what champagne they should be ordering.
Queensland’s performance was sublime. Queensland showed the “State of Origin spirit” that Andrew Johns argues does not exist. In defence the Queenslanders swarmed like flies on a turd. Half-back Tom Dearden was the chief of the flies. He was buzzing around everywhere in an incredible man-of-the-match performance.
Dearden stands just 1.77cm tall but he clearly stood the tallest of all the players on the paddock and deservedly won the Wally Lewis medal for the player of the series.
In comparison, the NSW players were sometimes directionless, sloppy and stank. Nathan Cleary, who has achieved incredible feats in rugby league and is probably the greatest player in this era, now has the stench of losing three State-of-Origin deciders on his record.
Of special note, Lattrell Mitchell and serial pest Liam Martin both provided some in-game laughs with attempted Golden Raspberry Award submissions for over-acting in failed attempts to gain penalties for their team.
There is an old saying that the stats don’t lie but if you look at the statistics from Game 3 you would have guessed a different result. NSW outperformed Queensland in Run Metres, Post Contact Metres, Tackle Breaks, Average Set Distance, Kick Return Metres, and Offloads but the stats don’t measure “heart”.
And the only real statistic that matters is the scoreboard. 24-12.