State of Origin…

One of the main events in any part of Papua New Guinea is a sporting event – The State of Origin. People here are mad about their rugby – some to the point of religious fervour. League players are used to promote everything from products, to encouraging parents to vaccinate their children, and are used in the “Stop Domestic Violence” campaign. As you can imagine they are pretty influential.

Leading up to the State of Origin people start making it clear what team they support – the hype around it is similar to that of the Soccer World Cup in Australia. Seeing as very few people in PNG have been to Australia it is interesting to see how they choose the team they wish to support, but it is usually based on the NRL team their favourite player comes from (how they pick whether they like the Bulldogs or the Roosters etc. I’m not quite sure of either).

So when there is an event of this magnitude on in sleepy little Alotau, you must participate in the proper manner. Recognising this fact we donned any blue clothes we could find (Cam, Lyn, our visitor Anthony and I are all from NSW and Stan who is French, became a blues supporter by default through his relationship with Lyn. Serena was the odd one out in her support of the Maroons.)Note: Photo to follow soon*** and set off for the ‘local’ where the first game of the series was projected for the patrons viewing pleasure.

The first game of the series was a good one to watch seeing as the final score was 17-16 (Go the Blues!). As you can imagine the tension was quite high at times and there were a few harsh words exchanged, but no fights broke out, and that was nice. The patrons seemed peaceful enough at the end of the game, but even so we were more than happy to get a lift home waving the little blue “I support New South Wales” flags all the way.

N.B Is it just my imagination, or are there more pretty boy footballers these days then there used to be? Maybe it’s just the lack of the 80’s moustaches…