![]() ![]() "You never had to worry about building up to the game, you were already built up because the crowd were there and into you and always making noise. They're so passionate, even when they're walking the streets in the week before the game, they're into their footy so much," Brasher said. That's what the big games are all about when you have that atmosphere. Lang Park is where the legend of State of Origin was born. He's a Blue, a highly decorated one at that, but it was still a special place. For him, there was no acclimatising or settling in, you either got what Lang Park was about and loved it or you didn't and it ate you alive.īrasher got it from the first night he played there in 1993 to his final match at the ground in 2000, where he claimed man of the match honours. He boasts an incredible 7-2 record at the old Lang Park, easily the best of any New South Welshman on Queensland soil – and, as he's quick to point out, you can add two more victories to the total from those junior matches as well.īrasher has more wins at the Cauldron than Queensland legends like Gary Larson, Billy Moore and Kevin Walters, and when he speaks about playing there he sounds as passionate as any Queenslander. "It can be a long day waiting for the game, you can almost overthink it, but you see those lights and you hear a few cans hit the bus, that'll get you going."īrasher is one of the most underrated players in New South Wales Origin history and he knows a thing or two about winning behind enemy lines. "The bus drive down Caxton Street, with everyone throwing cans at you, then you see the lights of Lang Park, that was your switch on.īrasher had a superb record at Lang Park. "It's a pretty amazing place, so to actually run out and play there for the Blues – there's no better feeling. "I've got tingles now thinking about it," Brasher said. They howled like wolves and chanted for Stone himself to be sent off and were not sated until Lewis returned to lead Queensland to yet another victory at home.īeing on the end of that crowd was raw, chaotic, and perhaps unsavoury to some, but even then Brasher knew he wanted to be part of it. The people didn't take kindly to the dismissal of their king and a torrent of cans soared through the Brisbane night onto the pitch. He and his teammates were sitting on the ground, because seats were at a premium in those days, when referee Mick Stone committed the unforgivable offence of sin-binning Wally Lewis after a brawl. It was 1988 and a 17-year-old Brasher had played in a junior interstate game for New South Wales at Lang Park as a curtain-raiser for Origin II. Some were full, some were empty, some were in-between, but they were all sailing through the air. Tim Brasher remembers the cans flying over his head. That's what helped build Lang Park and turn it from a hulk of concrete and plastic chairs into a temple and that's the only hope New South Wales have of tearing a little piece of it down. ![]() ![]() That's why Queensland grasp for underdog status whenever they can – it's something of a superpower, one that helps a team reach deep within themselves and overcome the odds, be they real or imagined. So much of Origin mythology is built around a team rising to the challenge with their backs against the wall and nobody but each other believing it can happen. The Blues are despised outsiders but that doesn't mean they can't win. Doing it at Lang Park, where the light shines out of them, can feel impossible because you aren't taking on a team, you're taking on a state and there really is a difference, and if you think there isn't, there's a chance, as the Queenslanders like to say, you just don't get Origin. ![]() Taking down the Maroons at any venue is never easy. On Wednesday night Caxton Street will fill up and the stadium doors will open and all of Queensland will become one horde blessed with glorious purpose and 17 sky blue targets in their sights, while New South Wales attempt to keep the series alive against odds that so many are tagging as insurmountable. It can be obtained by using a tow truck to take it to the player's garage before beginning the race.Origin has been played at 13 stadiums over the years, from Adelaide to Melbourne to Perth to Long Beach, California, and at a couple of places in Sydney and across Queensland.īut its true home, the place where it was born and where, if it ever ended, it would surely breathe its last, is Lang Park.
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