Making a Clean Sweep

Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

In Origin, there’s no such thing as a “dead rubber.”

The ignominy of being listed in Origin’s records under a 3-blot series defeat doesn’t sit well with Origin teams – they tend to bring to Game III all the wild fury of a rabid dog.

Conversely, for the side that won Games I and II, it’s hard to keep grounded, hard to put the euphoria and back-slapping of a series victory out of mind.

It’s all a lethal Origin-mix that keeps the clean-sweep a rare feat – just six Origin teams have achieved it to date (2009), and none since the Blues 2000 triumph. Another eight teams have entered Game III with similar dreams, but left the arena beaten and despondent.

There’s no doubting that the Maroons are the kings of stopping a clean-sweep.

Confronted on eight occasions by a NSW team hell-bent of winning Game III to make it 3-0, Queensland has beaten NSW five times. The Blues have only managed to bring the Queenslanders down twice out of five instances.

That the clean-sweep is so rare is evidence of just how Herculean an effort it takes to win all three matches in an Origin series. Let's have a look at a few of the teams that achieved it, and others that fell short...

2007 Match III - Maroons ahead 2-0

In 2007 the Maroons entered Game III with their sights on a 3-0 series win. But Queensland lost hard-working forward Dallas Johnson to a severe concussion in the opening moments of the game, and then, still short of half-time, knee-injuries ended the night for flyers Brent Tate and Greg Inglis.

Other Maroons played on though battered and bruised, and somehow NSW were only ahead 6-4 deep inside the second half. It took until the final seven minutes of Queensland’s 2007 campaign for the team to finally wilt, when Matt King and Hazem El Masri each scored a try out wide (which El Masri, of course, nailed both conversions!).

As 2007 demonstrates, home field and home crowd advantage in Game III aren’t enough to ensure a clean-sweep victory – even at “the Cauldron.” The only other time the Blues stood up in Game III to stop Queensland winning 3-0 came way back in ‘84, but significantly, that too was at Lang Park.

1984 Match III - Maroons ahead 2-0

The Arthur Beetson coached Maroons of 1984 were eyeing-off history as not only the first team to make the clean-sweep, but also a bit of payback for the dark pre-Origin days, where Queensland only ever once defeated NSW 3-0 in a series (1924) since the code began in Australia in 1908.

Few recall it now, but that ‘84 Origin series was not just interrupted by club games, but also Ashes Tests against the touring British Lions. For Game III the Maroons lost five players from the Game II starting team that won the series in Sydney, including power backs Gene Miles and Chris Close. Mind you, NSW had eight new men in its run-on side for Game III.

With a month and lot of football gone by since Game II, public interest in the series had long faded, and only 16,599 fronted up to Lang Park. The Blues’ new skipper Steve Mortimer put his stamp on the evening, producing an impressive man-of-the-match performance in NSW’s 22-12 win, spoiling Queensland’s first clean-sweep attempt.

1985 Match III - Blues ahead 2-0

Building on that 1984 Game III win, the following season saw Mortimer lead a resurgent NSW team infused with a new-found passion for “Blues pride”; they won Games I and II to take their first ever Origin series victory. Mortimer immediately retired from rep footy, with Wayne Pearce taking over as captain for Game III.

This time there was a six week break between Games II and III for three Tests against New Zealand. After Australia’s coach Terry Fearnley (who was also NSW coach) axed four Queenslanders for the third Test, a bitter civil war erupted inside and outside the Kangaroos’ camp along state-lines.

Game III of the Origin series thus provided the Maroons with a timely means to exact retribution upon Fearnley, and they took full advantage of it, defeating NSW 20-6. The emotion of the inter-state rift had probably ruined any chance NSW had of winning the clean-sweep, but the events of that July had significantly put more than a Jerry-can’s worth of fuel on the bonfire of Origin rivalry.

1986 Match III - Blues ahead 2-0

In 1986 Origin reached new heights in popularity, with passionate and epic contests in all three matches, and the widest winning margin between the teams being no more than a converted try. Despite the evenness of the final scores, NSW won them all, becoming the first state to win the clean-sweep.

Most of the credit was placed upon the Parramatta scrum-base duo, Peter Sterling and Brett Kenny. As far as Queenslanders were concerned though, the decision by Sydney referee Kevin Roberts to award Blues forward Peter Tunks a first half try from an obvious knock-on, and then a game/series deciding penalty that edged NSW ahead 18-16 near fulltime, were just as culpable for the unpalatable end result.

You can’t change results, but that sort of bitterness over a loss can make victory taste all the sweeter when it does come.

1988 Match III and '89 Match III - Maroons ahead 2-0

Queensland won Games II and III in ’87 to win that series, and then in the space of 13 months between May ’88 and June ’89 won all six Origin games played, taking back-to-back clean-sweeps along the way – it was an unrivalled period of domination.

In Game III of both series Queensland emphatically belted the Blues. In ’88 the Northern men turned an early 6-16 deficit into a 38-22 rout, with prop Sam Backo trampling through and often over the NSW forwards. The Canberra goliath had been awakened into action by Maroons coach Wayne Bennett, taunting Backo that history would record him as nothing more than a “one Test wonder.”

After a now legendary effort by an injury-decimated Maroons to win Game II of ’89 16-12, and with it the series, Queensland could have been forgiven for finding it hard to be “up” for Lang Park’s Game III, especially given king-pins Meninga, Allan Langer and Bob Lindner were all out injured.

The Jack Gibson coached Blues led 12-8 at the break, but the home side scored two tries out wide to take the lead early in the second half – both tries were converted from touch by Dale Shearer, which helped send the 33,268 strong crowd into party mode; by the final siren Queensland had racked up seven tries in a 36-16 shellacking.

1995 Match III - Maroons ahead 2-0

Queensland’s only other clean-sweep was the unexpected triple-victory in 1995.

Amidst the troubled times of the Super League war, both states stuck to ARL-aligned players. Phil Gould’s NSW team boasted Brad Fittler, Andrew Johns and a host of other stars, while Paul Vautin’s rag-tag Maroons were relative Origin “no names.”

Marshalled behind 18-game Origin veteran Trevor Gillmeister, the upstart Queenslanders stunned the league world by winning Game I (2-0) in Sydney and Game II (20-12) in Melbourne.

Over 40,000 Queenslanders packed into Lang Park for the “Welcome Home Celebrations” third game, daring to dream that the series-winning Maroons could do it again, and thus unleash a victory party that would go on well into the following day.

Late in the contest the Maroons were ahead 18-16 and within tantalising reach of the clean-sweep. NSW launched a final sortie from deep within their own territory, for a moment they looked dangerous, but then muffed a pass; Queensland swooped on the ball and suddenly 18 year old Ben Ikin was across the line for a converted Maroons try and a 24-16 victory.

CLEAN-SWEEP WINNERS (GAME III Results)
[as at end of 2009 series]

NSW 1986 (NSW 18-16 @ Lang Park)
QLD 1988 (QLD 38-22 @ SFS)
QLD 1989 (QLD 36-16 @ Lang Park)
QLD 1995 (QLD 24-16 @ Lang Park)
NSW 1996 (NSW 15-14 @ Lang Park)
NSW 2000 (NSW 56-16 @ Homebush)

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CLEAN-SWEEP (GAME III) STOPPERS
[as at end of 2009 series]

1984 NSW 22 d. QLD 12 @ Lang Park
1985 QLD 20 d. NSW 6 @ Lang Park
1990 QLD 14 d. NSW 10 @ Lang Park
1993 QLD 24 d. NSW 12 @ Lang Park
1997 QLD 18 d. NSW 12 @ SFS
2003 QLD 36 d. NSW 6 @ Lang Park
2007 NSW 18 d. QLD 4 @ Lang Park
2009 NSW 28 d. QLD 16 @ Lang Park

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The original version of this article was first published in the match program for Game 3 of the 2009 State of Origin series.