State of Origin III, 2016: It's on | photos

Queensland prop Josh McGuire tweeted this after Origin II, and now angry NSW forwards want to rip him to shreds with really aggressive pushing and shoving and several f-bombs because they are banned from throwing a punch.

And they say Origin is losing its edge.

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In the minutes just after full-time in game two of the 2014 series, Queensland were losers so they decided to have a meeting in the middle of ANZ Stadium.

NSW had finally done it. They'd won 6-4, clinching the series for the first time in eight years.

[Lovefest: Rival origin skippers Cameron Smith and Paul Gallen have been showing each other great respect.]

Lovefest: Rival origin skippers Cameron Smith and Paul Gallen have been showing each other great respect. Photo: Wolter Peeters

The Blues players didn't know whether to laugh or cry at full-time. Captain Paul Gallen, though, wanted to do the honourable thing and shake the hand of Queensland counterpart Cameron Smith.

"The Queenslanders were on the 40-metre line, just in a huddle," Gallen recalls. "I was standing to the side of it for about two minutes. I didn't know what to do. Luckily, [NSW coach] Laurie Daley came on the field and we just hugged. It was just relief and joy."

As coach and captain embraced, Smith was in the middle of the huddle.

"You can't win forever," he told his men, according to centre Justin Hodges. "It had to happen sooner or later. It's important for us to remember what we've done … But we will come back bigger and better."

Did anyone expect Queensland to come back that much bigger and that much better?

Maybe they are neither but as it stands their renewed domination of NSW over the past two years is suffocating the interstate series like a grapple tackle.

Forget about NSW versus Queensland.

The real battle is the battle for relevancy and on that score Parramatta is schooling State of Origin.

How does a dead rubber on a frozen Wednesday night at a leviathan stadium that is expected to be only three-quarters full compete with salacious yarns about Eels five-eighth Corey Norman being caught up in an alleged sex-and-drug-tape scandal just days before he's to appear in Downing Centre Local Court on drug possession charges?

Perhaps the NRL should pay the grubby individuals offering to sell the tape to media outlets for $150,000 and screen it instead of Origin III. It would be a ratings bonanza for Channel Nine – and probably have more spark than the Blues' attack.

Of course, we jest. But if the past three weeks have shown us anything, it's that Origin requires an urgent reboot.

With the series stitched up, Queenslanders will argue otherwise. This might surprise them but Origin isn't just about you.

It's not even about NSW. It's about the hate. There's not enough hate. More hate.

So sanitised, so bland has Origin become, matches are starting to have the intensity of a regular season NRL game.

Players live in fear of saying something that might fire up the other side. And, yes, the media is to blame for that as much as anyone. Starved of real characters, the media will amplify the most innocent of remarks.

But the players remain guarded.

The love-in between Gallen and Smith this week must have brought a tear to Mark Geyer's eye.

Gallen took a veiled swipe at Queenslanders being "bad winners" but then quickly retreated and said he wasn't talking about the players, just the fans.

No, Origin needs the hate. It needs Wally Lewis being booed by NSW fans when he was Australian captain. It needs Paul Harragon throwing uppercuts at Martin Bella. It needs Gus Gould blueing with everyone. It even needs the "rats and filth" of NSW firing up Mal Meninga. Dare I say it, it needs the odd XXXX can thrown in anger.

Or it needs all of the game's stakeholders to come together for a meeting or a party over summer so they can agree on fundamental change to the way Origin is played from next season and beyond.

From 2018, game two will be played on a stand-alone representative weekend.

But it's become clear that's not enough, and while they will make all the right noises publicly, the people who run the game know it.

What about playing Origin for three weeks in a row? Bang! Bang! Bang!

There would be minimal disruption to the NRL with interest at fever pitch. It would be an over-hyped, Super Bowl-like festival of Origin and footy and hate and thousands of Queenslanders as excited as Bindi Irwin after she won Dancing With The Stars.

It would be one massive interstate party that went for a month and everyone's invited.

Except you, Corey Norman. Sorry, buddy. You might need to sit this one out.