Billy Slater didn’t start the fire but it was always burning since Origin’s been turning states into enemies. 

Artie Beetson, Johnny Lang, Mal Meninga, Choppy Close;
Les Boyd, Darryl Brohman, Jamie Goddard’s right hook, 
Alfie Langer, The King and I, and the Puncher of Nate Myles; 
Greg Inglis, Folauuuu, Stranger in a Strange Land; 
Reece Walsh, blown away, what else do I have to say? 

Billy didn’t start the fire; 
But it was always burning;
Since Lang Park’s been stirring; 
No he didn’t light; 
But he tried to fight it.

With apologies to another Billy in Mr Joel of New York City, the Billy from that other global metropolis of Innisfail did however fail to put out the fire over Joseph Suaalii’s hit on Reece Walsh.

His occasionally cryptic reluctance to say much of anything on the matter has kept the flames flickering. 

The NRL media either side of the Tweed are lapping up the animosity between the teams sparked by Suaalii’s horrendous hit on Walsh in the seventh minute of Origin I. 

If you see any cliches like “war of words”, “lit the fuse” or “powderkeg” in coverage about the Origin feud, that’s when you know it’s time to stop reading.

Slater knows how the media works – the Storm and Queensland in particular were masters of manipulation during his glittering playing career and after being part of the Channel Nine commentary team in the past few years since he retired, he knows what journalists are after when they pepper coaches with questions. 

He is possibly being too clever for his own good by not saying what he really thinks about Suaalii’s shocker. 

Nine did a live cross to Slater in the coach’s box soon after the infamous incident and straight away when asked about it, he replied “you probably don’t want to know that” before opening up slightly more when the conversation turned to the state of play so early in the match. 

Well, actually, Billy – what he thought about the tackle was all anyone wanted to know. 

He continued the stonewalling act in the post-match media conference, responding with “I’ll keep my feelings about that (tackle) to myself” a couple of times when the media scrum prompted him for his thoughts. 

All he needed to say was something along the lines of “it was a high shot, the referee had no choice but to send him off” or words to that effect. 

If he had been asked if he thought it was deliberate, he could have kept his counsel or responded with the obligatory “you’d have to ask Suaalii”. 

But because he was so evasive with his comments, it ensured what was already an inflammatory incident was going to burn longer than it otherwise would have in the news cycle.

As part of his Nine commitments, he was again asked to make public commentary more than a week later on The Sunday Footy Show and even though he was slightly more talkative, he again deepened the mystery by claiming “I don’t think my comments are gonna do the game or any individuals involved in the incident any benefit”.

“I honestly don’t like watching it too much, it’s pretty sickening and it’s not good for our game. I can’t imagine too many mums and dads would want to throw their kids in the car and take them and sign them up after watching this sort of stuff.”

He clearly thinks the Blues intended to take out Walsh with a flurry of big hits but not for the first time, their plans came unstuck.

Michael Maguire will eventually elaborate on why he took his “glass houses” potshot back at the Maroons on whether it was aimed at Slater, or assistant coach Nate Myles sledging Suaalii as he plodded off the field or the cavalcade of Maroons legends like Gorden Tallis and Johnathan Thurston who have been vocal about NSW targeting Walsh. 

And as players who played more than a decade at the top, none of them have exemplary records but that is hardly relevant when it comes to Suaalii taking out Walsh. 

If Slater had played his entire career without being suspended, would that mean that only then could he comment on an act of foul play? Of course not. 

He was a product of the uncompromising Melbourne Storm system engineered by Craig Bellamy, whose teams have been renowned for pushing the envelope, stretching the rules and testing the patience of referees during his reign. 

And they do it because it works. 

Slater was hardly a thug as a player but if he was a total cleanskin, he wouldn’t have premiership rings on his fingers.

The fact is the Blues, past and present, are just as bad as the Maroons when it comes to occasionally overstepping the proverbial line in Origin. 

Both sides of the Springfield/Shelbyville divide think the other one is the dirty no-good bunch of grubs. 

There’s a Spider-Man meme which sums up how each team side-eyes the other. 

It’s this kind of pre-game back and forth which used to lead to a brawl of some description before the actual football in the football match got underway. 

Those days are long gone so it’s up to each team to gain the ascendancy with those under-rated values otherwise known as skill, tactical nous and physical prowess. 

That’s what usually decides Origins and it’s why Queensland smashed NSW 38-10 in the series opener. 

Whichever team concentrates on some sort of get-square from Origin I will likely be the one on the wrong side of the MCG scoreboard come full-time. 

And when the teams from this year’s series have decided who gets the shield after this game or the next one, the Origin fire will still burn on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on.