Just imagine a halves combination of Immortal Andrew Johns and Trent Barrett, Danny Buderus at hooker and a backline boasting Matt Cooper, Jamie Lyon, David Peachey and Shaun Timmins. Not a bad team, hey?

It would take quite a side to challenge them wouldn’t it?

For arguments sake, let’s throw Anthony Minichiello, Mark Gasnier, Craig Wing, Steve Menzies, Craig Gower and Luke Ricketson up against them. No this isn’t some fantasy New South Wales dream team match played in some distant dream.

Why?

Because this match actually happened and they weren’t representing the Blues or the Australian Kangaroos.

It happened on May 16, 2003, when Country Origin faced City at Gosford’s Central Coast Stadium – then known as Grahame Park. On that night, City got up 17-16 after a field goal to Canterbury’s rising five-eight Braith Anasta. Perhaps more famous on this evening was Joel Clinton’s hit on Willie Mason with the young Clinton standing over Mason, breathing fire with a clinched fist in the air. Those were the days. When coaches had less power and well-paid players still sang songs on the bus to training.

Yes there was a time before ear injuries and muscle soreness when players wanted to play representative footy more than club footy.

A time when some of the biggest name forwards in the NRL – guys like Ben Kennedy, Jason Ryles and Craig Fitzgibbon – would put their hand up for selection, put on the Country tracksuit and belt out “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” at the top of their lungs.

Fast forward to 2016 and what a mess we have.

Forget form, forget reward and forget everything you once thought you knew about representative rugby league. Almost as if the NRL is trying to see how many times it can kick the old dog before it dies, this year’s annual clash between the bush and the big smoke has been battered to an all-time low.

A man who knows a thing or two about rep football, current City coach Brad Fittler, believes the concept needs a drastic review and fast.

“The fact that other people have control over players’ opportunity to play rep football – that’s normally a lot of coaches,” Fittler said.

“So the appropriateness of this round and this game will definitely be looked at. It’s important the NRL takes control, it’s as simple as that.”

This is either a State of Origin trial or you scrap it because if it isn’t a trial then that’s just one more game of footy Queensland isn’t playing.

Fittler said he couldn’t pick his first six options to play fullback on Sunday at Tamworth. That’s just downright disgraceful. All due respect to Clint Gutherson, but he doesn’t deserve to be fullback for City Origin.

There’s a kid called Ryan Matterson playing in the centres for City – sorry, who?

Junior Kiwi Addin Fonua-Blake has also been picked off the bench for City despite only a couple of NRL games to his name.

Put either of these 2016 squads up against either of the aforementioned teams from 2003 and you’d be looking at a mutiny on the scoreboard of astronomical proportions.

This isn’t fair to the fans (especially those in the bush) or the players themselves.

If the game doesn’t respect the concept what chance do we have as supporters?

Imagine Newcastle coach David Waite trying to tell Paul Harragan or Mark Sargent in 1994 they weren’t allowed to play for Country – a match they won in front of 20,000 novacastrians. Try taking away any of City prop John Skandalis’ four jerseys he earned over a fourteen year career.

These were times when jerseys meant something and weren’t given away to anyone other than a club’s stars.

Once you lose the spirit, it becomes just another game.

@woodward_curtis

video source: deel85