State of Origin - Game Two

I just spent the last hour or so trying to write a blog post about Origin and what the experience was like. It didn't work. I ended up writing real short sentences that ended abruptly and made no sense - like that. so... I just deleted it all and i'll start again.

I can't describe what shooting Origin was like, I can't describe what it felt like because it was just that damn special. I know there are lots of photographers who shoot sport all the time and have excelled in their craft and shoot events like grand finals, olympics, world cups etc etc, so for them, this is just another Sunday afternoon shooting sport.

For me, i'd never done anything this big, this momentous.. this exciting and definitely NOTHING ever that involved 80,000+ fans cheering and chanting in a deafening roar. 

It all went so quickly and felt like a blur, there was times I got overwhelmed by the enormity of the event and lost track of what I was doing and felt flustered and actually angry at myself. I've shot league before, but this was some other kind of beast, just faster and harder. Normally when I shoot league, I place myself at the end of the field and let the players come to me, i'm lazy like that. At Origin, we (photographers) were assigned positions and had to stick to them. No excuses. I'm not fit, i'm the first person to admit it, if it were up to me i'd eat all day and get super fat. Unfortunately, i'm also very vain and care about how I look, so I haven't let myself get that fat - yet.

I was stuck on the eastern wing and had to run up and down, all night. Not fun. It's especially not fun running up and down with two 1DX's, a 400mm and monopod. I'm sure I pissed off more than one of the other photographers when I dropped my 400 on them when I switched from tele to wide. My bad..

I was lucky enough to be there when NSW finally broke their 8 year losing streak. I knew it would be huge if NSW won, but I never expected it to be THAT big.

From watching my first State of Origin match two years ago in a pub in Gladstone, surrounded by a sea of blue and purple Maroon (mostly purple Maroon) I would never have imagined that two years later i'd be there shooting it.