State of Origin - Game 3 "Deciders" in Sydney

Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

“Deciders” are State of Origin’s equivalent of a Grand Final.

They bring with them a natural recipe for one team’s joy and excitement, and heart-breaking tragedy for their beaten rivals.

As fans, we all don our state colours in hope and expectation of a glorious victory, yet fearful of the pain we might feel from a defeat.

In Brisbane “deciders”, the Maroons easily hold the edge, winning 5 series to NSW's 2. In the six "deciders" held in Sydney, the Maroons hold the ascendancy as well, but only just...

ORIGIN - the 2008 "Decider" (Olympic Stadium, Sydney)

In a quest for their third Origin series in a row, Queensland seemed unable to crack the Blues late in Game 3 to take the lead. The scores were locked at 10-all, and "golden point" looked likely.

Then, in seemingly the blink of an eye, the Maroons' Johnathan Thurston drifted wide, offered up a "show-and-go", and he was gone. The Queensland fullback Billy Slater raced up on Thurston's inside, took the pass and streaked across the line planting the ball under the posts.

The Blues spent the final ten minutes laying seige to the Queensland goal line, but were unable to claim the elusive 4-pointer.

ORIGIN - the 2002 "Decider" (Olympic Stadium, Sydney)

The Blues looked to have wrapped up the 2002 Game 3 decider, and with it the series, after winger Jason Moodie’s converted try gave the home team a 18-14 lead with barely minutes remaining.

The Maroons knew though, as holders of the Origin shield, a tied series was as a good as a win for them if they could draw the scores level.

Allan Langer, in the final moments of his gigantic Origin career for Queensland, had the final say.

After recovering the football from Darren Lockyer’s short kick-off, Langer set Maroons’ backrower Dane Carlaw into open space from 30m out.

Carlaw, ignoring any thought of “improving the position” for his team’s goal kicker, crashed across wide out for the “winning” try. Amidst the Maroons’ celebrations, Queensland captain Gorden Tallis strode purposely towards the adjacent stand, letting fly his raging contempt for a Blues’ fan’s derisive banner.

Everyone knew the conversion attempt from Lote Tuqiri was of no real consequence, and few in the Maroon camp cared when the kick sprayed wide of the posts, leaving the final score at 18-all.

ORIGIN - the 2004 "Decider" (Olympic Stadium, Sydney)

“Golden point” was called into action for the first time in Game 1 of the 2004 series at the Olympic Stadium in Sydney. Former Illawarra Steeler, Shaun Timmins, potted an unlikely 37m field goal for NSW to claim the match 9-8. After Billy Slater’s sensational chip-and-chase try in Game 2 at Suncorp Stadium (Lang Park) catapulted the Maroons to a 22-18 win, the two sides faced-off again in a Sydney “decider”.

The match itself proved to be a bit of a fizzer as far as a contest goes – the 36-14 win for the Blues though turned into a memorable farewell party for Brad Fittler.

Coaxed by coach Phil Gould to come out of rep footy retirement for Game 2, “Freddy” had feared the “fairytale ending” other greats of Origin had enjoyed was destined to elude him. He got his wish though – and the sight late in the game of a try-bound Fittler, fist pumped triumphantly high into the air, remains an enduring image of Origin history.

ORIGIN - the 1992 "Decider" (Sydney Football Stadium)

It was perhaps no coincidence that the Fittler-Gould connection had successfully guided the 2004 Blues to victory, given they had both figured in the 1992 series where NSW had for the first time won a series-decider in Sydney.

It was Gould’s debut as Origin coach, and Fittler’s first full series for the Blues. It was also the first time that Queensland had to learn to live without Wally Lewis. Remarkably, the 1992 series was just the second time that NSW had hosted two of the three annual Origin games (the first time was in 1988).

Playing in front of a packed Sydney Football Stadium in Games 1 and 3, gave NSW the edge they needed. The home town support provided the Blues with their own “cauldron”, and the local fans were in full cry, baying for Maroon blood.

The most “claret” flowing in Game 1 though came from NSW man-of-the-match and hooker, Benny Elias. The sight of his worried mother racing onto the field to attend to her cut and bloodied son is an emotive scene now part of the code’s history.

The Blues courageous 14-6 win was followed by another epic Origin encounter at Lang Park. With the scores locked at 4-all late in the game, Blues half-back Ricky Stuart missed two field goal attempts. With a minute on the clock Langer, who had never steered over a one-pointer in his career, piloted between the posts the match-winning field goal, edging the Maroons to a 5-4 triumph.

In another unyeilding display of the toughness of Origin contests, 54 minutes had come and gone in the “decider”, and the score was still squared at 4-all. The series was on a knife-edge; one break could win it, one mistake could lose it. As they say, “fortune favours the brave”, and the Blues five-eighth and captain, Laurie Daley, stood up to the challenge.

Just outside the Maroons quarter, Daley deftly short-kicked behind the Queenslanders on their blind-side defence. Team mate Paul McGregor quickly snavelled up the ball, beat a desperate clutch from Langer, off-loaded to Daley, who found fullback Andrew Ettingshausen and the Blues had their much-needed try to prise open the dead-lock.

Daley’s gamble had paid off, NSW went on to win 16-4 and take, not only the 1992 series, but four of the next five years (’93, ‘94, ’96, ’97) as well.

ORIGIN - the 1998 "Decider" (Sydney Football Stadium)

The first winter after the calamity of the Super League War, Origin in 1998 was looked forward to with great anticipation. With NSW hosting two Sydney matches (for the first time since 1992), most of the pundits had the Blues as the favourites.

This Maroon outfit though proved otherwise. As usual, the Queenslanders looked a fairly settled selection, with Langer, Kevin Walters and Steve Renouf welcoming debutants Darren Lockyer, Shane Webcke, Tonie Carroll and Steve Price.

Meanwhile, the Tommy Raudoniks coached Blues almost seemed to have too many creative geniuses on the paddock, with an attacking array that included Andrew Johns, Matthew Johns, Laurie Daley, Brad Fittler, Nik Kosef and Jim Dymock.

In what was a breath of fresh-air in comparison to some of the slug-fests of Origin in the 1990s, Game 1 in Sydney produced an eight-try thriller, ultimately decided by a last-minute Kevin Walters chip-kick.

With the Maroons needing a converted try to win, Walters, deep in his own territory, kicked ahead. His team mate Ben Ikin swooped onto the ball, and was away. From the next tackle, an inter-change of quick passes led to Tonie Carroll crossing over for a try 10m wide of the posts – a try that moments earlier had seemed impossible. Lockyer duly landed the conversion and the Queenslanders had won 24-23.

The Maroons were cock-a-hoop at the prospect of wrapping up the series at Suncorp Stadium. They were soon in the dumps after the Blues thumped them 26-10.

All of which meant Queensland would have to deliver the seemingly unlikely feat of defeating NSW twice in Sydney in the same series – and the only 1988 “clean-sweep” Maroons has ever achieved that deed. The 1998 Queenslanders though had two direct conduits to the secrets of the 1988 team – coach Wayne Bennett, and half-back Allan Langer.

The Maroons attacked NSW with a fierce determination and persistence, and some big plays from their big-name stars. After just seven minutes, a kick-return from from winger Wendell Sailor led to Kevin Walters crossing for the opening try. Still well before half-time, and deep in their own territory, a Tallis off-load found Ikin and he strode away for a longe-range Queensland try.

In the second half Langer sapped the Blues’ of their spirit by repeatedly grubber kicking the ball towards the NSW goal line, leaving them a forlorn struggle at the start of each set of tackles. Tired and worn out, the Blues had no answer when Langer propped and stepped his way across for the match-winning try under the posts.

ORIGIN - the 1982 "Decider" (Sydney Cricket Ground)

Queensland’s only other victory in a series “decider” in Sydney came in 1982. Now long forgotten in the telling of the Origin story, the 1982 series was initially scheduled as just two Brisbane matches, and a third and deciding Sydney match only if required. As it happened, NSW won the first match, Queensland recovered to take the second, and a SCG “decider” was brought into play.

The Maroons of that opening series had arguably more pressure to come up with a win in the “decider” than other Queensland Origin team. There was no way back for inter-state rugby league had the Queenslanders, bolstered as they were by their prodigal sons back from Sydney clubs, failed.

No less significant to the birth of Origin than his mythical “punch” on NSW’s Mick Cronin in the 1980 Origin, was Arthur Beetson’s sterling efforts as coach of the Maroons in 1982. Having suffered a defeat in Game 1, Beetson galvanised into his Queenslanders with a self-belief that victory was still within their reach.

Under the captaincy of Wally Lewis, the “decider” witnessed the first outing for the Mal Meninga and Gene Miles centre pairing for the Maroons. The Queenslanders, rising to Beetson’s call-to-arms, held the Blues comfortably for most of the game. The NSW capitulation was complete when a wayward pass in the Blues’ in-goal evaded the anxious clutches of Moree winger, Phillip Duke, and Lewis pounced upon the ball to claim a match- and series-winning try.

The Maroons victory silenced the critics of Origin, and permanently put in place the annual three match series. Origin was clearly what the Queensland public wanted, NSW fans were slowly warming to, and it gave the Maroons a far greater push towards selection in the Australian team.

Recognising its immediate and long term worth to the code, QRL Chairman Ron McAuliffe declared that “State of Origin football is the lifeblood of rugby league.”

Had the 1982 series not gone to a “decider”, and had Queensland not won it, the telling of Origin’s history may have been a far briefer tale.

The original version of this article was first published in the match day program for Game 3 of the 2008 State of Origin series.