AFL legend labels State of Origin ‘most brutal sport in the world’

AFL legend Dermott Brereton has paid the ultimate compliment to the NRL’s State of Origin ahead of Game 2 in Melbourne.

AFL legend Dermott Brereton believes State of Origin rugby league is “the most brutal sport in the world in some rare praise for the rival code.

NSW take on Queensland in Game 2 on Wednesday night in neutral territory at the MCG in Melbourne.

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The Blues must win to keep the series alive and prevent the Maroons from claiming a third straight series victory under coach Billy Slater.

The V/AFL hasn’t played a State of Origin game since 1999, while the three-game contest continues to be the jewel in the NRL’s crown since it was introduced in 1980.

Speaking ahead of Game 2, Brereton said the frequency of the ferocity in the games made the NRL’s State of Origin the toughest game of all.

“I think it’s the most brutal sport in the world, because it’s so constant and for its sheer brutality,” Brereton told the Daily Telegraph.

“If I was that competitive beast, I would love to play it and probably would have loved to have played it.

“Rugby league is an incredibly physical, brutal sport and it’s tremendously honest where you somehow, some way have to get past the guys on the other side. That’s what I find wonderful about the sport.

State of Origin is as good as it gets. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Even Derm reckons it’s the best. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

“AFL is dangerous because contact can come from anywhere but the dangerous contact happens infrequently where rugby league is just gruelling. The pounding they put on the opposition is extreme.

“Rugby league has immediate contact. It gives an opportunity for people to go along and see from the first whistle somebody run into the other and it’s an immediate contest.

“To have someone oppose and stand in front of you, face you, and you have to charge into their shirt front, that’s brutal.

“AFL starts the ball in dispute, it gets tapped to somebody, they might or might not get touched, they kick it to somebody else who might or might not get tackled, depending on the strain of the game. When you watch rugby league, there is physical action from the very get-go.

“That’s a tremendously brutal and honest way to start your game of sport. That’s one thing they have over us. There’s a great honesty in the way it’s formed, shaped and played.

“State of Origin is the best rugby league football you will see in the world. We love our sport in Melbourne, it’s just awesome. And in State of Origin, you get the chance to belong to a team in the best sporting fixture of its type in the world.”

The Blues must beat Queensland in Game 2. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

This will be the 10th State of Origin game played in Melbourne and Brereton said Victorians would embrace the spectacle.

“Melbourne people love seeing a great contest and if you tell us, we recognise it, we understand and see the evidence that this is, in rugby league terms, the world’s best football, then we will watch it.

“And once you turn on, tune in, turn up, you will automatically go to a default position in picking a team. They will probably pick it in the first few moments.

“In rugby league, you look at a player’s pen pix and it says ‘State of Origin appearances’ – that’s because of the intensity and how the NRL judges a player, by how he has performed in State of Origin.”

The Blues have brought Latrell Mitchell into the team, Mitchell Moses replaces Nicho Hynes at halfback and Dylan Edwards finally gets to debut after recovering from a quad injury.