Media Release

KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter waxes lyrical about the State of Origin on the eve of the historic 100th game.

“I was there at the birth of origin when Kerry Boustead, our proudest Innisfail son, scored the winning try - actually leaping over a New South Welshman to get over the line,” Mr Katter said.

Boustead, from the electorate of Kennedy, represented Queensland in the first State of Origin match in 1980. He scored Queensland's first ever try in State of Origin and is one of a handful of players to have scored three tries in a single State of Origin game.

Reminiscing, Mr Katter said, “I was there the night the stands spontaneously gave the bowing wave to the Emperor of Lang Park – Wally Lewis.”

Mr Katter to quote the great Wayne Bennet: “There is a place for little men and big men, there is a place for fast men and deliberative men, and there is a place for the super smart and the not so smart.”

Mr Katter offers the players a bit of advice in the lead up to the 100th game, “One thing that the players all need is a heart the size of a mountain, and a fierce will to win. But the dangerous psychological trapdoor is believing that you are better and believing to a point that you don’t have to prove it.”

Mr Katter will be hoping that there will be another ‘maroon wash’ at the 100th State of Origin.