www.nswrl.com.au/origin In 1908, the first NSWRL premiership was contested in Sydney. It launched the breakaway game of Rugby League which, despite being written off as being over before it began, went on to become Australia's most revered and for a time, most popular winter sport. Queensland has always gone toe to toe with New South Wales, and they launched their first competition in Brisbane in 1909. But for 70 years, Queensland was treated like a second class citizen, and the only attention New South Wales gave was to poach their players and worse, make them play for New South Wales. It was a hiding to nothing for Queensland. Year in, year out they were on the end of the most humiliating thrashings in Australian sport. But State of Origin changed all that. In 1980, the new format came in where players played for the state they originated from and not their state of residence. Suddenly Queensland became the dominant state, winning a massive majority of the State of Origin contests of the 1980s. from www.bronconet.org
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