Ben Ikin, chief of Queensland Rugby League, denied Maroons entry

The Queensland Rugby League boss was attempting to enter the Maroons rooms after game one when a security guard stepped in.

Ben Ikin and the Maroons. Photos: Getty Images

Anyone involved in the inner workings of professional sport knows the security pass hanging from a lanyard can be crucial at big events.

Over the years, we’ve seen the likes of tennis royalty Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal and boxing’s baddest man on the planet Mike Tyson denied entry after forgetting to wear passes.

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Now Queensland Rugby League (QRL) chief executive Ben Ikin can add his name to the list.

Ikin, 47, had a long career in the NRL with the Bears, Broncos, Queensland and the Kangaroos before moving into the media and then football operations.

Ikin was appointed to lead the QRL in May last year and was naturally in attendance for the Maroons’ commanding 38-10 victory over the Blues in Wednesday night’s Origin 1.

He attempted to join the side in the dressing room to celebrate after the game when, you guessed it, a security guard intervened.

Ben Ikin and the Maroons. Photos: Getty Images

Mitch Lewis, son of rugby league legend Wally Lewis, recalled the scene on a chat with Brisbane’s Nova 106.9 breakfast show Ash, Luttsy & Susie O'Neill.

“What’s the change room like after it? Do all the family go in and everything?” O’Neill asked.

“Yeah wearing the media accreditation, we have to wait until I think (the players) get some time to go in by themselves,” Mitch Lewis said.

“There’s a break between the Blues’ press conference and then (Queensland coach) Billy (Slater) and (captain) Daly Cherry-Evans come in.

“We had to wait until after they’d celebrated as a team and Billy obviously had a word with the players.

“Then they bring in family and friends … they do the official press conference and everyone’s really well spoken and then you go in there and it’s just music pumping.”

This is where the story gets interesting.

Roger Federer denied entry by security at the 2019 Australian Open for not wearing his pass

“Well not everyone got to go in there did they? There was a pretty big omission from that dressing room?” asked one of the hosts.

“Yeah, the big guy,” Lewis replied. “So I was showing my card to get past one closed off door and then you can head downstairs towards the media area and Ben Ikin is there.

“And I’m like, I’m just going to ride his coat-tails.

“Even if I don’t make the press conference, if I can get into the Queensland sheds behind the CEO of Queensland Rugby League … so Benny said hello and we shook hands and walked down and then the seccy (security guard) pulled us up.

“Ben goes ‘sorry mate I haven’t got my pass’ and the security goes ‘upstairs you go’.

The Ash, Luttsy and Susie O'Neill podcast on Nova.

“So I said ‘he’s the boss of Queensland Rugby League’ and Brett Kimmorley comes along and says ‘mate he’s fine’ and the guys goes ‘and I’m security, he doesn’t have a pass, he goes upstairs’.

“So Ben being Ben Ikin says ‘yeah that’s fair enough, he’s doing his job’ and he stood there in his Queensland tracksuit without an accreditation.

“And I said ‘well mate if you’re not getting in, I guess nobody is’.

“I got into the media section, the press conference, not the Queensland section and I didn’t see Ben for another 40 minutes I don’t think.

“He eventually got a pass, someone came out and let him in.”

We’re betting Ikin will remember his pass for Game 2 in Melbourne on June 26, although surely he won’t need it at Suncorp Stadium for Game 3.