It was like picnicking on the slopes of a smouldering volcano. Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy and I joined the NSW team for a convivial, sober dinner on Monday night at a restaurant only 200 metres from the MCG, in a pre-State of Origin game atmosphere shrouded in smoke and threatening flame.
The “glass houses” comment by Blues coach Michael Maguire – his perception of Queensland hypocrisy in their aggrieved reaction to the high tackle on their fullback Reece Walsh in the first Origin match – has produced clouds of vapour but no real fire.
Maguire and Queensland coach Billy Slater spent a half-decade at the Storm as assistant coach and player respectively, tempering any on the record tit-for-tat exchanges. Yet there is such a simmering intensity about these coaches, they treat the alphabet as if starts with X and ends with O.
The relaxed atmosphere at the team dinner, in East Melbourne’s Il Duca restaurant, followed a more solemn mood at the earlier jumper presentation, held at the nearby team hotel.
Maguire views the Blues jumper as sacred. He waved it repeatedly in front of his team, as three former NSW players living in Melbourne were invited to express what it means to them. Robbie Ross........