After a lacklustre Game One, has State of Origin jumped the shark?

IT might have just been one poor game. But so lacklustre was Origin I, you can’t help asking: has rugby league’s great showpiece lost its mojo?

IT might have just been one poor game. Remember the Blues clinched their only series victory in a decade with the same 6-4 scoreline. And no one south of the Tweed complained about that.

Still, so lacklustre, dispassionate and uninspiring was Origin I, you can’t help asking the question: Was this the first sign that rugby league’s great showpiece has jumped the shark?

Actually, the question should be did Origin fail to jump the Sharks. Because the excitement-free fare dished up on Wednesday night paled in comparison with what we have come to expect at club level.

The numbers will tell you the idea Origin is losing its mojo is sheer fantasy. An enormous audience of 3.951 million viewers watched the game and ANZ Stadium was almost (although, perhaps tellingly, not quite) packed.

But when a game is better remembered for Sam Thaiday’s amusing virginity metaphor than for anything that happens on the field? How long before the casual viewers who pad the Origin audience switch the dial to real comedians.

Origin is always a victim of its over-hyped build-up. As Thaiday might tell you, Nine’s coverage involves so much foreplay the consummation could not possibly provide complete satisfaction.

Much of the lead-up leans on bloody Origin legend. But amid all the sepia-toned nostalgia and war stories, conveniently ignored is that the current sanitised version no more resembles the savage battles of yesteryear than a pillow fight resembles the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan.

When the whistle blows the absence of malice is stark. Some expected Paul Gallen to unleash mayhem in his final series. Yet the high shot for which the Blues’ skipper was unfairly penalised would not have knocked a butterfly from a Queensland shoulder.

There was surprisingly little fire in Origin I.

Purists will defend Origin I as an exhausting battle of attrition and copybook defence. They will tell you it was a real rugby league lover’s game of rugby league.

But Origin is a phenomenon because it transcends the game. If it is merely a decent version of what the NRL throws up every week, where — beyond the overblown interstate rivalry — is its point of difference?

Origin can’t just lean on its history, it must continue to create history. Now that it lacks violent mayhem it must be the ultimate showcase of rugby league’s outstanding contemporary qualities.

Without the biff we should now expect a stunning demonstration of muscular athleticism, speed and ball-handling. So when Origin descends into a turgid stalemate devoid of both skill and scoring as it did during game one, we are entitled to feel short changed.

As much as New South Welshmen hate to hear it, Origin thrives on Queensland passion. No doubt the bloodthirsty cries of “Queeeeslander’’ will ring around Suncorp Stadium during Origin 2.

Paul Gallen couldn’t inspire the Blues in his final series.

But with the best game in rugby league now Cowboys v Broncos, not Queensland v NSW, perhaps even the seemingly inexhaustible Queensland appetite for Blues’ blood has been sated. The northern barbarians are too busy tearing each other apart.

Forgotten by many is that State of Origin was an Australian Rules concept. But VFL/AFL Origin died a quick death when the AFL became a truly national competition. The Adelaide Crows and the West Coast Eagles (and later Port Power and Fremantle Dockers) carried the old interstate rivalries.

The Broncos and Cowboys and — particularly — the Titans still don’t provide that kind of satisfaction. But so greatly has the balance of power swung in Queensland’s favour, the chips are falling from northern shoulders.

Laurie Daley was left to blame the officials after another failure.

There is an obvious way for Origin to escape the doldrums: a NSW victory in game two. Although I suspect the prospects dimmed when Laurie Daley mistakenly thought he was a sports editor not a coach and directed the local press to write his “the ref’s got us’’ story.

Shifting the blame from his players to the referee might have helped vent Daley’s personal frustrations. It might even bring the whistle blowers to account in Brisbane. But it smacked of desperation.

Perhaps that is the problem with Origin. For good reasons, scores are now settled in the press conference, not on the field. Just like any other game.

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Originally published as After a lacklustre Game One, has State of Origin jumped the shark?