STATE of What? We no longer care.
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We’re officially divorced from watching State of Origin. There’s been too many disappointments, too many series losses. This correspondent has been a SOO devotee since the first game kicked off in 1980. We’ve been to watch matches in Sydney and Melbourne. In fact, a honeymoon was once timed around a SOO match.
But no more. When the six week SOO circus starts in 2018, we're going to tune out. We fully realise this is easier said than done, because SOO is ubiquitous. So we’re already thinking of how to spend our time, particularly on game nights. For example:
Yoga
Yoga aficionados never really look as though they’re on this planet or in touch with reality – Lost in Space, to borrow from the classics. They’re more concerned about achieving a salute to the sun than NSW’s poor marker defence. So a start with a yoga group next year is already beginning to appeal.
Fishing
Every week we speak to this paper’s fishing expert Ian Pereira so he could provide us with some handy tips. The fact that we don’t even know how to bait a hook shouldn’t be a problem. Heading out to Chinaman’s Point or the gantry to catch luderick or bream with a slab of fresh bait would be the perfect Origin alternative. We’ll make sure we’re there either side of slack water, as well. A cold night fishing on Harrington wall would still be preferable to watching Cameron Smith slam over another sideline conversion.
Get elected to council
As has been mentioned in this space before, the first MidCoast Council elections will be held in September. Now, if the new council decides to hold meetings on a Wednesday night it would be a neat way to sidestep a SOO telecast. Instead of lamenting another Queensland try we could be vigorously debating why Forster-Tuncurry shouldn’t get all of council’s funds. However, as attractive as this sounds during Origin, the weeks either side could be a bit testing, particularly for rate payers. We may need to give this more serious consideration.
Watch Game of Thrones
After Queensland scored their second try in the second half last week that’s exactly what we did, turned over and watched a repeat of Game of Thrones. We didn't really understand what was going on, but the lass with the dragons was certainly a standout. Maybe next year we’ll hire out all the GOT series and watch them while ignoring SOO. It’s appropriate, for we heard about 100 times during the show that winter is coming. And SOO is in winter, so this is win-win. And win’s a word we haven’t associated with SOO for a long time.