When the Queensland State of Origin team visited Enoggera army barracks and fired rifles, prop Petero Civoniceva won the prize for worst shot.
Civoniceva's 12 rounds sprayed the target area with such random abandon that he was awarded a bag of rice. His teammates joked Civoniceva's poor aim gave them confidence to visit Fiji. "They reckoned you'd be safe in a Fiji coup with Petero's relatives firing at you," said Maroons media manager Bob Lindner, a former Queensland Origin player.
Team manager Steve "Boxhead" Walters, another former Maroon, won the award for best shot. "He admitted later he cheated," Lindner said. "He rigged the scores with the soldier in charge of the computer printouts."
It's difficult choosing which aspect of this story pleases the cynic most.
Players preparing for games with rifles? No. They've ridden horses, metal bulls and go-carts, and they've abseiled and sailed catamarans - all in the name of bonding.
A bag of rice as a prize? No. Rice is cheap and relates to something being sprayed.
A team manager cheating on his players to win a prize? Don't be so sanctimonious. "Boxhead" is a former hooker.
Rugby league players knowing about Fijian military coups? Ah ha. That exposes the prejudice of you rah-rahs who conveniently ignore the story of the Wallabies forward on a European tour: watching the news of then Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev on hotel TV, he asked his more educated roommate: "What's that red mark on his face?" Told it was a birthmark, our Wallabies forward said: "Geez, how long's he had that for?"
OK, the forward was from Queensland and his father was a rugby league international.
The truth is Queenslanders know a lot about history, particularly as it relates to countries and states to the north and south.
To them, Fiji and NSW are equally alien.
Queenslanders like modern history the best. Anything dating from July 8, 1980, when Arthur Beetson, then playing reserve grade for Parramatta, came home to Brisbane and beat NSW in the first State of Origin match. He was joined by other Sydney-based players, such as St George's Rod Reddy and the Roosters' John Lang.
Their win validated the belief that Queensland talent may well be lured south by Sydney's poker-machine palaces but when it comes to raw passion, anyone who pulls on a Maroon jumper never forgets his origin.
Twenty-seven years later, Queensland doesn't need NSW.
"We're self-sufficient now," said Lindner, who played with three NSW clubs.
Manly's Steve Bell is the only Sydney-based member of the starting Maroons team to play the Blues tomorrow night. The Roosters' Nate Myles and Canberra's Neville Costigan will come off the bench.
Three Melbourne players - Cameron Smith, Greg Inglis and Dallas Johnson - are in the starting side. But Melbourne is an outpost of Queensland. The three Storm players, together with Bell, began their careers with Melbourne feeder club North Brisbane.
Costigan was kicked out of the Broncos when he was busted drink-driving after going out for an early morning pizza. That used to be mandatory behaviour for Queensland Origin teams. Nowadays, they sit around exhausted from signing thousands of posters and shirts.
"It's a hell of a lot quieter than it was in past Origin camps," Lindner said from the team's Sanctuary Cove base. Some players, though, can't disguise their true selves. "Carl Webb got sent off for backchatting the referee in a very serious game of touch football against the Army," Lindner conceded.
Late yesterday, the Maroons planned to travel to Movie World on the Gold Coast, where they were to enjoy the Superman ride - "the fastest ride in the southern hemisphere", according to Lindner. "There's also Batwing with more G-forces than a shuttle launch, Scooby-Doo and Lethal Weapon," he added.
Rollercoaster rides with superheroes. Much like Origin football really.
