While there was an almost religious solemnity to the jumper presentation and a more relaxed feeling at the dinner,volcanic clouds hang over Wednesday night’s game.

No player on either side will risk a high shot resulting in a send-off but there will be fiery exchanges,mainly on NSW’s left side where the combination of Jarome Luai and Latrell Mitchell have bought into Maguire’s Blue brotherhood ethos.

The Blues were shocked by the vitriol from the Queensland bench in Sydney when NSW centre Joseph Suaalii wassent off for his hit on Walsh. It wasn’t just Maroons assistant coach Nate Myles who ridiculed Origin rookie Suaalii as he left the field. The Blues trainer told the NSW coaching staff that the Queensland bench exploded in anger and abuse.

When there is collective abuse of a player whose dismissal so early in a match is almost certain to guarantee victory,it reflects the pent-up anger reserved for Origin matches.

It was reminiscent of the end of an Origin match in Sydney 30 years ago.

On that occasion,following a match-winning try in the corner by Mark Coyne in the last minute of play,Queensland half Allan Langer pushed over a despondent NSW hooker Ben Elias and spewed out a lava flow of abuse.

Still,it was the first game of the series and is further relevant to today,insofar as the second match in 1994 was also played at the MCG.

Queensland lost their cherished underdog tag,as they have for Wednesday’s match. The bookies can’t split the two teams,but the Maroons will be the crowd favourites. Victorians cheers for Queenslanders,partly because they holiday there and also by reason of their perception Sydney is the power centre of Australia.

Being cast as top dogs does not sit comfortably with Queensland Origin teams,evident by their record of losing four of the five Origin matches at the MCG. The 1994 MCG game was a snorefest,evincing cries of “boring” from the crowd. But thirty years later,the citadel of sport in Melbourne is set to rumble as up to 90,000 people watch a combustible encounter that will be anything but a picnic.

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