A day or two ago, Origin was dead. Again. It does that from time to time. Nobody was going, nobody cared. The windy, frost-bitten wastelands of Homebush would play host to a contest of minimal consequence and dwindling appeal. Even money for another Queensland victory was being declared highway robbery.

We should have known better. What transpired was the best game of the series, with the most brutal fallout and enough controversy and bitterness to marinate the next instalment perfectly for 12 months until its served up at Suncorp Stadium in 2017.

Suddenly, game one next year can't arrive quickly enough. Origin's capacity to surprise shouldn't have come as such a surprise.

Queensland players and fans have been left infuriated by Paul Gallen and his team, who walked away during the presentation to go and mingle with fans. This, from a retiring captain who had just branded the Maroons as ungracious victors.

Greg Inglis will be banned for three weeks for the shoulder charge that broke the jaw of Josh Dugan. James Maloney celebrated the winning try by going out of his way to shove Origin retiree Corey Parker. Gavin Cooper pinged a ball of Matt Moylan's head and was duly given a Stone Cold Stunner out of left-field by a maddened Andrew Fifita.

Everybody was losing the plot, referees and commentators included. Before Gallen whacked Nate Myles flush in the jaw and ended the era of fights, there would have been multiple punch-ups, presumably one of them featuring Aaron Woods attempting to come off the top rope and missing everyone.

This is what we really want to see in Origin football, isn't it? We can kid ourselves about a craving for fast, crisp, wonderful rugby league, but since the day it was born these sort of shenanigans have sustained the game and propelled it into something of priceless value to the code.

If you want sportsmanship and respect, watch the video of the kid from Portugal comforting the distraught French fan. State of Origin has never been a bastion of either of those virtues, if we are honest. On the contrary, it's the absence of them that makes it all so compelling.

Nobody takes losing particularly well after an Origin game. To the Blues and their fans, it's turned into a kind of gallows humour, like the English used to talk about the Ashes. When they won that they had street parades and knighthoods. We all know how annoying that turned out to be.

North of the border, despite years of dominance and victory from a side liberally sprinkled with all-timers, hundreds of thousands of kids went to school on Thursday in foul moods, sitting around with their mates discussing the barbarity of David Klemmer and the injustice of it all. The series was won, but that one genuinely stung.

For all of the spin and hype and bluster that now comes as part and parcel of Origin football, that's the base-level secret of Origin's success. People are emotionally attached, perhaps more than any other sporting event in Australia. You can't make that up in the marketing department, nor can it be diluted by any shortfalls in a particular game.

And so it ends, with Queenslanders and New South Welshman once again at eternal disagreement over matters rugby league, both sides of the river irritating each other like fingernails on a blackboard. All is right in the universe once more.

Origin is dead. Long live Origin.