NSW fan confesses ‘I don’t like State of Origin anymore’

I don’t like State of Origin anymore. I think it’s overdone, over-hyped and it is all-consuming for months, writes Jeremy Pierce. VOTE IN OUR POLL

I feel like the bloke in the Canadian Club ad about to make a terrible confession.

I don’t like State of Origin anymore.

There, I said it.

I think it’s overdone, over-hyped and it is all-consuming for months.

Cue the voiceover guy:

The battle lines are draaaaaaaaaaaaawn!

Two kingdoms colliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide!

This means waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!

Does it really?

Somewhere along the way State of Origin transformed from an epic “State against State” rivalry and a chance for some midweek beers with the mates into a shiny corporate mercenary selling games off to the highest bidder, introducing weird jerseys to sell more merch and a pre-match television build-up that lasts so long most people are asleep before the game even starts.

Am I the only one this jaded?

It wasn’t always that way.

Go back 30 years and I’m a NSW kid on the Tweed crying after Mark Coyne’s miracle try, I had hairs standing on end at my first Origin at the old Lang Park, games were something you looked forward to for days.

Now State of Origin never stops.

Anytime a young Polynesian kid emerges with a sensational NRL performance, it’s not “wow, this kid is awesome”, it’s “What state can he play for?”

It doesn’t matter if they’re born in another country, we’ve changed the rules so many times King Charles would be eligible after catching a football during a royal visit to Outback Queensland in the 1970s.

A classic State of Origin moment from 1995.

(I cringe to think that my own eligibility would be for Queensland after playing my first senior game in the Gold Coast comp).

There’s a non-stop news cycle that sees an off-season injury transformed into “a tragedy sending shockwaves through next year’s State of Origin series”.

Shouldn’t the pinnacle of the game be playing for your country? Winning a premiership?

Look, I get it.

Every year I write stories about State of Origin, about the fans travelling thousands of kilometres to get to a match, the economic windfall for Caxton Street on game day, the farmer on the Gold Coast who paints his cows maroon.

The players genuinely cherish it.

It’s hard being a NSW supporter when State of Origin comes around every year. Picture: Luke Marsden

They really do bleed maroon (it’s more like red really, but don’t let that get in the way).

I’m even writing this wearing my Blues jersey in the office because I like the banter.

And if I didn’t like it I wouldn’t watch it.

Maybe all this just comes from Queensland’s decades of dominance and continued insistence that they are somehow always the underdogs even when they’ve won seven series’ in a row.

But can we just scale the hype back from a 14 to something like an 8?

Originally published as NSW fan confesses ‘I don’t like State of Origin anymore’