NUR EIN
Strangely Brown
This Is Not A TestNur Ein XI
about 10 years agopassed
5:31
This Is Not A Test
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Strangely Brown

Entry from This Is Not A Test in Nur Ein XI.

Tell an origin story

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This is not a Test
- Strangely Brown

Arthur Beetson was skinny 20 year old kid from Roma who knew his way around a football field.
Went down to the big smoke in Sydney and pretty soon found himself mixing it with the Poms wearing the Green and Gold
By the time his Roosters smashed Changa and his white boots in the 74 Grand Final,
Big Artie was a Rugby League Immortal

Meanwhile, down on the New South Wales south coast, young Mick Cronin was learning how to pull beers at his dad’s pub in Gerringong.
While out on the paddock, he was honing the skills that would making him a household name.
Quiet, unassuming and supremely talented - an ornament to the Game and a monument to humanity.
one of the classiest centres ever to play the game,
and apparently, one of the nicest blokes to pull on a footy boot.

Over the years, Artie and The Crow played for New South Wales together,
played Tests for Australia together.
And in 1979 even ended up playing at the Parramatta Eels together.
They enjoyed a game of golf or squash together. They were good mates.
Then that one night in Brisbane, they were wearing different coloured jumpers, Blue and Maroon - and nothing was ever the same again…

This is no Grand Final, this is not a Test
No, this is something new, Rugby League at its best
It was State against State
It was mate against mate
And the moment that Big Artie thumped The Crow
That’s what made it great

The Origin was a new thing, no one thought it would work.
Would the players take it seriously?
Would they really put it all in against the blokes they played alongside week after week?
But one person knew it would work.
Big Artie got to fulfil a dream that night by marching out onto Lang Park in a maroon jersey.
He was a Queenslander.
He was home, and he and his mates had something to prove.
In the stands, the northerners were roaring for blood.
For too long they had seen their heroes poached away by the shiny-arses down south.
Down the pitch though – all Artie could see was 13 bastards wearing blue jumpers.
And he hated bastards in blue jumpers.
And when he saw one of those blue jumpers stand in a tackle and try to off-load – Big Artie poleaxed him,
The Crow went down like a sack of spuds, and all around the State,
from Coolangatta to The Isa,
from Thargomindah to Cairns
the people roared “QUEENSLANDER!!”.

This is no Grand Final, this is not a Test
This is State of Origin, Rugby League at its best
It was State against State
It was mate against mate
And the moment that Big Artie thumped The Crow
That’s what made it great

Big Artie has left us now.
The pies took their toll and that heroic heart finally gave out during a bike ride on the Gold Coast.
“I bet all the bikes in Queensland rejoiced” quipped Cronin about his old mate.
There were never any hard feelings.
It’s a hard game, and it has to be played hard.
Mick and Arthur even sat next to each other on the plane home after that first match.
And now, all these years later – Blue and Maroon are tribal colours.
The Cane Toads and the Cockies in the crowd scream at each other with a passion unmatched by any other contest.
This is Rugby League.
The Greatest Game of All.
And on that night all those years ago –
two good mates gave us one of its finest moments.

This is no Grand Final, this is not a Test
This is State of Origin, Rugby League at its best
It was State against State
It was mate against mate
And the moment that Big Artie thumped The Crow
That’s what made it great

The night Big Artie thumped The Crow
The night Big Artie thumped The Crow
That’s what made it great

Reviews

1 posted notes

noma

Forum post

Composition: 8/10
Lyrics: 7/10
Performance: 5/10
Production: 8/10

Creativity bonus: 3
Challenge bonus: 4

I understand that rugby is very dear to you, but it's only remotely interesting to me, and this song suffers from being too long. I was unsure which one of my four categories should reflect this, but I eventually decided it to be a "performance" issue, so that's the reason why I gave you fewer points there. I like the spoken word though, it's hard to pull it off without sounding super cheesy. You get a creativity bonus for it. Also, this is definitely an origin story, so I'll give you a challenge bonus, too.

Strangely Brown - This Is Not A Test | Nur Ein