The 2014 State Of Origin series was something of a nightmare for Queensland. After being strong favourites to continue their eight-year domination over the Blues, they turned around and lost the first two tests and despite a dominant showing in the dead rubber, it was all too little, too late to prevent New South Wales from claiming their first State Of Origin series win since 2006.
Clearly whatever the problem was, it certainly wasn’t the truly gorgeous Canterbury shirt, which arguably deserved better than the performances in the first two matches, and clearly someone at Queensland Rugby League agrees with us, because this year’s jersey is identical to last year’s… though they’ll be hoping for better results this time out.
In truth it’s not completely identical – there’s a new main sponsor in the shape of Suncorp, replacing AAMI, but other than that, it’s as you were. And it’s hard to complain really – it’s a gorgeous shirt.
As clean and simple as you like from afar, with a really clever textured chevron pattern when you get up close, this is easily one of the best looking designs of recent years, and is testament to Canterbury’s philosophy for clean, classic-looking designs with modern twists.
We understand that some of you might find this all a bit boring however – plain maroon shirts with tasteful, subtle ornamentation… where’s the fucking fun in that, eh? Well madame et monsieur, please direct your attention towards the bloody ruddy training shirt…
WHAT. IN. THE. FUCK.
State Of Origin might be the most Australian of sporting pursuits, and so we suppose it’s very fitting then, that Canterbury has created a the ‘All Things Queensland’ training jersey, which might very well be the most Australian thing ever.
If you were to tell us that the inspiration for this jersey was lifted directly from the cheapest 1990s postcard the design team could find, we wouldn’t be surprised. In fact it’s amazing that this shirt doesn’t have ‘Greetings from Queensland’ written on it somewhere.
It’s supposed to reflect all the wonderful things that represent Queensland, as the name suggests, and there’s plenty of what you’d expect here – beaches, palm trees, the Great Barrier Reef and a shifty looking koala – so if you didn’t know anything about the place before buying the shirt, by the time it’s been through the wash a couple of times, you’ll feel like a local.
We honestly don’t know how to really apply any kind of value judgement to this. How do you rate insanity on this level? Or is it genius? We genuinely can’t tell you. What it undoubtedly is, though, is Australian – right down to the XXXX sponsor, it’s so bright and sunny and cliche and silly… it’s like a 1980s Neighbours marathon.
How could this be more Australian? Well, maybe if you got the Honey Badger, wrestling a kangaroo in the back of a ute while Crocodile Dundee BBQs some tasty fillets of Great White Shark… well it would still be close.
A marvellous combination of clean and classy and downright insane – we can’t help but applaud.
SHIT/GOOD RATING: Fair dinkum
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