FROM ‘BIG ARTIE’

BY IAN HEADS AND ARTHUR BEETSON

‘Between 1966 and 1980 I played 17 times for NSW in an annual interstate series that was increasingly lopsided and losing its spectator appeal.

‘The fact was that NSW clubs, backed by the pokies, had been able since the early 1960s to buy up most of the top players in the game, no matter where they came from.

‘Year after year, NSW teams, laced with their share of Queensland-born players who had been enticed south, would more often than not give the Maroons a toweling.

‘The games were often spirited because that old Queensland passion – and because of the input of men such as Ron McAuliffe and Barry Muir – and occasionally close.

‘The statistics tell the story: in 18 seasons leading up to 1980, the year everything changed, NSW won 50 of 58 games played. There had been four draws.

‘The last Queensland ‘success’ in a series had been way back in 1961, when the states squared things two games apiece. By 1979, the concept of state football – which had a history dating back to 1908, rugby league’s first year in Australia, was desperately in need of an injection of something new and special.

‘NSW walked away with the two games played in 1979, 30-5 and 31-7, and in The Courier-Mail, journalist Lawrie Kavanagh wrote: “A major suggestion now is a state of origin series”.

‘The idea had been lightly aired before, and I’d mentioned and supported it publicly, too, but what happened in 1979 was the last straw, the event that positively demanded changed.

‘In 1980, fueled by the enthusiasm of Queensland Rugby League boss McAuliffe and more cautiously accepted by the likes of NSW’s Kevin Humphreys and Bob Abbott, the ‘Great New Idea’ arrived.‘