I have been to Origin and I have to say, I have witnessed more passion from fans at a Hyde/Stalybridge Celtic game. Passion and RL in Australia is vastly overrated. The atmosphere in grounds and bars in Australia (or bars in England full of Aussies) during games is best described as 'sterile', in my experience.

If someone doesn't like SOO, it doesn't mean they don't like RL. I have watched some SOO games that have been great to watch, some of them have been rather dull. What people like about the game of RL will vary. Maybe you should accept that what you regard as ‘best’ is not necessarily the same as everybody else’s opinion.

What do you define as passion?
In Australia sports fans are not the same as the UK in how they follow their chosen team.
England has people singing songs and doing the big group hand claps, that stuff is not in the Oz make up.

The Crowd at Wednesdays SOO looked pretty passionate to me, it was a sea of Blue and Maroon, I did cringe somewhat at the silly wigs they must have been giving out.

Look at Cricket and the barmy army with their antics and Trumpets and Drums etc, for some people that is the pinnacle of following your team, for others they are a pack of arsxholes trying to grab their own attention.

As you say each to their own.

Really?
For the record, I don't "hate" SoO, but I do see it for what it is. An event created by TV, for TV, with nothing ony consequence at stake other than bragging rights between the RL fans of 2 states in 1 country.
As for the "skill" level in the game on wednesday night.....comparing it to other SoO games in the past, I repeat, IMO it was a very average game of footie where the tackles made, whilst sometimes cruching, were no more or less than you'd see in a regular season game of RL.

Yes, it was raining.....that will happen when you play your games in mid winter but there still was very little attacking skill involved for the entire 80 minutes, with any of real note taking place in the last 30 minutes once fatigue from the tackles some of you are drooliung over kicked in.

I thought all sports nowadays had some hope that it might get on TV and bring some money in.
Is 1 day Cricket or 20/20, Formula One any different?
Name a sporting event of any size that does not want or need TV coverage?

Most people in Australia thought it was a quality games and enjoy watching this series each year and are glad its on TV as the Stadiums only hold 50-80 k so they can still get to see it.
Maybe we should pinch ourselves and realise we have been conned for years by the Marketers and TV stations and its really just the Redcliffe Dolphins playing Wentworthville with dollops of hype.

Each to their own GF