The State of The State of Origin Man of the Series Award
by
Saturday February 14, 2004

The Australian Rugby League is looking at introducing a Player of the Series medal to commemorate the 25th year of the competition. This will undoubtedly start a debate on what the medal should be named.

As Lewis has been the most dominant player in the 25 years of origin life he is naturally front runner to be honored with the award being named after him. Lewis played 31 matches between 1980 and 1991. Some of the most memorable moments included his tackle on Gary Jack, when he picked him up and dumped him like a hay bail, his chip kick that hit the cross bar for Greg Dowling to score in the mud and his push and shove with Mark Geyer with the touch judge wetting himself in the background.

The Great Wally Lewis has lent his name to the Queensland award for best player in the State of Origin series for the past 12 years. Lewis says he was 50-50 on the idea of having the award named after him. Queensland manager encouraged Wally to accept the offer if it was made and reassured supporters that Wally would still be presenting the Queensland award no matter what happened.

Other serious suggestions included Arthur Beetson, Queenslands first captain, Brad Fittler, New South Wales stalwart and Wayne Pearce, all round nice guy with an unfortunate mole on his face. There could be a joint award such as The Lewis-Fittler Award, but that hyphenation makes it sound more suitable to a Rugby Union game.

The award could be named after legendary referee Barry Gomersall who was loved by fans for the way he dealt with on field fighting. He simply ignored it and followed the play. Players had a choice to join the fight and leave their team another player down or stay with the game. The Grasshopper Award has a nice sound to it.

Another memorable incident from past State of Origins involved a person invading the field,
smearing themselves in blood and then begin kissing and hugging a particularly ugly Blues player. This show of pure pride, passion and bad taste will live long in many memories. Every time the Mrs Elias Award is handed out spectators can be treated with vision on the big screens of the barbaric events again and again.

Of course these days of commercialism will have some impact on the award. Maybe The Wally Wallpamur Award , The Funky Funeral Directors Award or even The Libra Freeform Player of the Series Award would get a gig if they paid the right amount of dollars to the right person.

While on the topic of making a quid, the television station could invite the audience to ring and vote for their choice of player to win the award. It will only cost you one arm and one leg but you get a chance to win a kiss from Benny Elias and a prime position on twenty thousand mailing lists.

Then will come the disputes and criticism over who should of won the award but didn?t. Internet forums will have threads of disgruntled fans bickering on why their teams player did not win and why they should of. Players themselves will have so much to gain in endorsements after winning the award that they will have to fend off appeals by team mates similar to what happens in sports such as Triathlons when it comes to Olympic selections.

Equal Opportunity bureaucrats will be on the look out to ensure every player gets and equal chance at wining. The ARL will need to demonstrate that all minority groups are represented fairly in winning player lists. This includes races, religions and red heads. There is still hope for Brad Meyers yet. Vulture lawyers will be soliciting for business for non-winning players to appeal the decision on a no-win no-pay basis.

Who would want their name associated with such an award? The ARL may be best to leave good things alone. The ARL seem to go by the motto of "If it ain?t broke, fix it anyway, if it still ain?t broke run over it, then fix it."