Mal Meninga shares a laugh during the Queensland Maroons State of Origin training session. Source: Bradley Kanaris / Getty Images
THE claims that Queensland's Origin success has created a division within the Australian Test team would be concerning were they not so ridiculous.
I was on the 1985 tour of New Zealand when there was a genuine divide between the Queenslanders and players from NSW, and I can tell you as much passion as there is between the states at the moment, those problems are a world away.
I don't doubt there would be some feeling there, and that would be born out of the understandable frustration being felt by the NSW players not having won a series since 2005.
In 1985, the divisions were so bad that at training, the Queenslanders would be standing down one end of the field as a group, while the coach Terry Fearnley addressed the NSW players down the other end of the field.
I know Tim Sheens well enough to know he would never allow such a poisonous atmosphere while he was in charge of the Kangaroos.
In 1985, we played a three-Test series against the Kiwis in the middle of an Origin campaign - a campaign NSW was leading 2-0.
After winning the first two Tests, Fearnley - also the Blues coach at the time - then decided to axe four Queenslanders from the Australian team for the third Test.
They lost.
While talking about the feeling between the two Origin teams in the lead-up to Game Three this year, Greg Bird mentioned how hard it was to bury maroon and blue loyalties to unite under green and gold.
But I think some of his comments were probably picked up and run with by those trying to make more of it than what it really was.
I know Greg well, and like him a lot. And I am a big admirer of how he plays for NSW and Australia.
He is also good mates with Nate Myles.
Both men are tough, hard, passionate, ferocious and parochial players for their states.
But they are both able to put that aside and put their arms around each while packing down together in the scrum of the Gold Coast Titans or Kangaroos.
Those that seized on Bird's comments claimed that the supposed division in the Test team was a product of perceived arrogance from the Queensland members of the Test team.
Queensland's victory in the third Origin match on Wednesday night is all the proof you need that these players are as far removed from arrogance as you can get.
If these players were arrogant, they would not have won on Wednesday, as simple as that.
And they would never have been in a position to even think about winning eight series in a row, let alone actually achieving it.
These players have a tremendous amount of self-belief, and they also have the healthy egos that all successful people need to be the best.
But that should not be misconstrued as arrogance.
If they were arrogant, their winning run would have ended after three series, or maybe four.
They would have fallen into the arrogance trap of believing that all they had to do was turn up, and things would automatically fall into place.
Arrogance would have meant that they had such contempt for their opponents that they felt they didn't need to do the hard work, or give attention to the little details to get the job done.
Had they thought that way, NSW would have not only won on Wednesday night, they would be on their own winning streak.
Throughout this run of eight years, something that seems to have been lost in the appreciation of Queensland's achievement is the standard of the team the Maroons have been playing against.
The Blues are a fantastically talented, and passionate team.
To beat them, you have to be at your absolute best. Every single time.
There are a lot of things that go into this team; things like hard work, talent, passion, respect, unity and humility.
There is no room for arrogance. What they are and what they have built just mean too much.
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