This article is about the general concept of State of Origin. For specific information on the annual series of rugby league games in Australia, see the Rugby League State of Origin article.

State of Origin is the name used in Australia for sporting events or other competitions which involve domestic representative teams.

The term, when used in isolation, usually refers to rugby league football or Australian Football matches, in which players are selected for the Australian states or territories where they either first played (hence the name 'state of origin') or played the majority of their junior football. The concept mirrors international representative rules in other sports.

It was devised to address the drift of most talented Australian rules players to the Victorian Football League (VFL) and the effect that this had on interstate matches. A similar situation existed in regard to the New South Wales Rugby League which until the 1980s recruited the best players from the Queensland Rugby League. This was due to the increased funds of the NSW clubs, due to poker machines, which Queensland laws prohibited.

Although Australian Football state of origin matches no longer take place, the annual Rugby League State of Origin Series is now one of Australia's most popular sporting events.

[edit] History

The first recorded call for state of origin matches was made in 1900 by a journalist known as "The Cynic". Writing for a rugby football (before the split between union and league) periodical called The Referee, he suggested that Stephen Spragg, who had moved to Queensland, should be able to play for his state of birth, New South Wales^[1]. The concept would later be resurrected for rugby league, however the concept has never been used in rugby union.

[edit] Australian Football

The first State of Origin game was an Australian Football game between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Oval in Perth on 8 October 1977.^[2] Leon Larkin, marketing manager of the Subiaco Football Club in the West Australian Football League (WAFL), negotiated with the VFL for two years, before arrangements for the game were finalised.^[2] In the words of football historian John Devaney:

A Western Australian team comprised entirely of home-based players had, on 25 June, taken on a VFL team containing many of the same players who would return to Perth ... for the state of origin clash. The respective scores of the two matches offered a persuasive argument, if such were needed, of the extent to which the VFL had denuded the WAFL of its elite talent:

• On 25 June 1977 VFL 23.16 (154) defeated Western Australia 13.13 (91) — a margin of 63 points
• On 8 October 1977 Western Australia 23.13 (151) defeated Victoria 8.9 (57) — a margin of 94 points, representing an overall turn around of 157 points

Western Australia's previous biggest winning margin against a Victorian state team had been a mere 38 points in 1948. Almost overnight, an inferiority complex was dismantled: Victoria, it seemed, was not intrinsically superior, only wealthier.

—Devaney, ^[2]

Games involving each of the other states soon followed. In 1989, a crowd of 91,960 people — a record for interstate games in Australian rules — attended a game between Victoria and South Australia at the MCG.^[3]

However, attendance and interest declined during the 1990s, due to a variety of factors, such as the VFL's ongoing conversion into a national club competition,^[4] the Australian Football League (AFL). The last official state of origin game involving AFL players was held in 1999.^[5] However, an annual veterans' game is still held.

A once-off AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match between a Victorian state of origin side and the Dream Team representing the other states, was staged on May 10, 2008 to celebrate 150 years of Australian Football.

[edit] Rugby league (Australia)

Former Queensland captain and Australian vice-captain Jack Reardon, who had later become a journalist, was the first to suggest that Sydney-based Queenslanders should be available for selection to represent their state^[6]. This would not eventuate until decades later however, when New South Wales and Queensland played their first "state of origin" match on 8 July 1980. The Australian rules experience was echoed, with Queenslanders showing enormous interest in the game at Lang Park (now Suncorp Stadium), Brisbane.

The popularity of rugby league state of origin matches since then has not waned and they remain one of Australia's (and indeed the region's) biggest sporting events. A record crowd of 88,336 attended a game at Stadium Australia in 1999. The record for the annual three game series was set in 2004, when a total of 203,309 people attended. The 2005 series saw an attendance record for a series with two matches in Queensland, with 187,374.^[7] The record television audience was set during game 1 of the 2009 series and stands at 3.48 million.^[8]

Australian international teams are often selected based on performance in the State of Origin series.

New South Wales play in sky blue jerseys and are known as "the Blues". The Queensland team plays in a maroon jersey, and are called "the Maroons". Both teams also have unbecoming nicknames - New South Wales: "the Cockroaches"; Queensland: "the Cane Toads".

[edit] Rugby league (England)

The success of the Australian State of Origin games resulted in the revival of rugby league inter-county games in England in 2001, under the name Origin Series.

[edit] Rugby league (New Zealand)

The New Zealand Rugby League has set up a similar competition called Kiwi Roots which will commence from 2010 onwards^[9]. The players will be eligible for two teams, one for players born north of the Bombay Hills and one for those born south of them. This capitalises upon the healthy rivalry that New Zealand's biggest city, Auckland, has with the rest of the country.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• stateoforigin.com.au, The Official State of Origin website
• NSWRL.com.au, The New South Wales Rugby League website
• rl1908.com - NSW v Qld
• State of Origin statistics
• Queensland Vs New South Wales webgame
• Australian Football League "State of Origin"
• fullpointsfooty.net, "West Coast - Part One: 1881 to 1985" (Background to Australian rules matches.)