Oh to be a Queenslander!
Cate Swannell | August 27th, 2008
IN the words of the immortal Billy Moore, as he was stomping down the tunnel at Lang Park: "Queenslander! Queeeeeeeenslander!!"
Australia won 14 gold medals in Beijing. Of the 8 individual gold medals, six of them -- Matthew Mitcham (10m platform), Libby Trickett (100m butterfly), Stephanie Rice (200m individual medley, 400m individual medley), Emma Snowsill (triathlon) and Ken Wallace (K1 500m) -- were won by athletes either born here or who now base themselves in Queensland permanently.
Of the 16 athletes involved in the six 'team' events in which we won gold -- men's double sculls, 470 men sailing, 470 women sailing, 4x200m freestyle relay, 4x100m medley relay and men's pairs -- seven were Queenslanders.
Of the 27 individual medals Australians won overall, 15 were claimed by mighty Banana-benders.
On top of that, seven of the bronze-winning softball team are Queenslanders. Six of the bronze-winning Kookaburras are Maroons. Six of the bronze-winning women's water polo team are, you guessed it, Queenslanders.
Unsurprisingly, we dominated the pool.
All of the gold medal-winning women's 4x200m freestyle relay team -- Queenslanders. All of the bronze-winning women's 4x100m freestyle relay team -- Queenslanders. Three out of four members of the teams that won bronze in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay, the 4x200m freestyle relay and silver in the men's 4x100m medley relay -- Queenslanders.
And half the gold medal-winning women's 4x100m medley relay team -- Queenslanders.
It gets tedious after a while, doesn't it, being so good? Nah, of course it doesn't.
You'd think we'd be used to it by now, but there's just no end to the thrill of watching the Mighty Maroons, in whichever sport, thrash seven shades of hell out of the other states, not to mention the rest of the world.
China won all the diving gold medals in Beijing, except one.
And that went to a Queenslander, Matthew Mitcham. Beautiful.
Let's face it, the last time New South Wales had a rugby league team worth backing was in the pre-State of Origin days when their team was made up mainly of -- *shock, horror* -- Queenslanders.
And let's not even start on rugby union.
Although I will say this -- apparently there are still people south of the border who believe Mark Ella was a better five-eighth than Paul McLean.
To you poor deluded fools I say -- look at the scoreboard.
Hugh Lunn, respected newspaper journalist and -- oh my god, a Queenslander! -- summed McLean up this way:
"Paul McLean played 31 Test matches for Australia and 100 for Queensland; he won the rugby premiership for his school (St Joseph's, Nudgee) with a 55m penalty kick; Brothers club lost only one of the eight grand finals in which he played; he scored exactly 1000 points for Queensland in his 100th match in the last match of Queensland Rugby's Centenary year; he kicked 14 consecutive goals against Wales on their Australian tour; he holds the individual Australian point-scoring record for a Test match of 21 points and he is the greatest point scorer in the history of Australian Rugby Union."
The weather's great, the beer's the best in the world, the beaches are unsurpassed, the politics is hilariously entertaining, the women are gorgeous and the men are hard-bodied. The roads are wide, the cane is high, the toads travel far with a seven-iron strategically placed and the surf is up.
Why would you live anywhere else?
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