.:The O'Briens:.: State of Origin- 8 in a row!! (feat. guest blogger that should be resident blogger, Dan)

8 in a Row!!!

Well I thought it was about time that I graced this blog with an entry from the ‘Man of the House’. Actually, truth be told, the woman of the house told the man of the house that it was about time the I made a contribution to this blog. Nonetheless here I am.

So I thought I might write about the best thing that has happened to me in the last 12 months. Something that surpasses marrying the love of my life, celebrating a great honeymoon, moving back to home to Australia and spending long lost time with my friends and family….Queensland’s record win in the State of Origin series, to make it 8 years in a row.

For those across the seas, State of Origin is an annual 3 game series of Rugby League matches played between Queensland and New South Wales. It is like an All Star game that is actually played with more intensity and passion than any other game of the year. As a young kid in Queensland, we have all grown up with our fathers, mothers and grandparents hurling abuse at the TV trying to lift our boys and get them over the line. So as adults we do just the same. And those who have seen me watch a State of Origin game would know that it is the one time of the year that I change from the usually placid, patient and well mannered man that I am, to some raging, ill tempered lunatic.

Over the past few years living in California, Holli and I would record the game in the wee hours of the morning, then shut ourselves off from the social networking world, to watch it later that evening. So needless to say, being able to watch the games live was something that we were both looking forward to.

For the first game, played in Sydney, we actually went to a small group gathering from our church, who were getting together to watch the game. So because we were meeting these people from our new church, for the first time, Holli and I were very nervous that the raging, ill tempered lunatic would make an appearance, especially if New South Wales were in front. Well as fate would have it New South Wales did win in a very close game. The lunatic did not show himself too much, however I had far less fingernails than when we arrived.

The second game was played in Brisbane and this was one event that we knew we would not miss. Fortunately Heidi happened to be in town for the game, so we thought that we would deck her out in our maroon colors and drag her along to support Holli in her first Origin game. Along with Pops, Dee and Ryan, we immersed ourselves in the atmosphere of the pregame bars where the chants and abuse of anyone who dared to walk past wearing the NSW blue colors were thick and fast. Within the first 5 minutes, Queensland were all over NSW and the 50,000 fans made sure we dominated the game to win convincingly. We all had a great time and Heidi was well and truly initiated as a Queenslander.

So the third and deciding game went back to Sydney. This time, with the series on the line we decided to keep the raging lunatic locked up at home. Fortunately, Nicole arrived in town just in time to once again provide support for Holli. In an extremely tense game Queensland won by 2 points to take out the series.

These series have been notorious for being extremely close. However, in recent years Queensland have definitely had the better of NSW, winning the past 7 series in a row. So coming into this series there was a sense of inevitability that we were due for a loss. But in the end the true heart of the Queenslanders got us home for the 8^th year in a row. Now we are looking for 9 years in a row in 2014…who wants to come!