In that regard, pictures of Queensland's favourite son, the late Artie Beetson, wearing the despised blue jersey of New South Wales arouse the kind of unhinged reaction a picture of Richie McCaw in a Wallabies jersey might generate in Otago.
Never mind that Origin opponents were soon playing side-by-side with NRL teammates as the game expanded. Or that the success of the powerful Brisbane Broncos meant Queensland was now suffering under New South Wales occupation about as greatly as Britain has suffered under European law.
But like the most ardent Brexiteer, the chip has never left Queensland shoulders. As hard as successive New South Wales teams, tired of being cast as the hardhearted Lannisters in Origin's Game of Thrones, have tried to knock it off.
So one bloody epic followed another and images of savage punches and wild brawls became as entrenched in the minds of fans — and, particularly, the highlights packages of TV broadcasters — as the spectacular tries of the Maroons' game-breaking fullback Billy Slater or the mastery of the Blues' one-time general Andrew Johns.
Accordingly we sat down to watch Origin as we might a pay-per-punch fight expecting all hell to break loose. Right up until this year when we get the first instalment of Millennial Origin.
The inevitable (and, unless you're bulk-billing concussion victims) desirable sanitisation of Origin has happened over several years. Once it became apparent that, in a gentler society where concepts such as "the softening up period" have been replaced by concerns about workplace safety, 26 grown men attempting to beat each other into unconsciousness might not be a great look.
The most vital step was the enactment of the "one punch and you're off" rule in 2013. Or, perhaps more pertinently, the enforcement of this rule in the 2016 Origin series when New South Wales hard man Andrew Fifita was sin-binned for a punch that once might have made him a contender for man of the match.
League forwards have been known to take slightly longer than certain strains of amoeba to process information. But it seems Fifita's successor as Blues "enforcer" this year, Penrith's Reagan Campbell-Gillard, has embraced the new Origin spirit.
"I'm a lover not a fighter," Campbell-Gillard recently said. "I can't even punch a punching bag. I'd rather scratch than throw a punch. I like to play aggressive football, but I don't like the fisticuffs. It looks bad and there are kids watching. That's the thing I don't like. We're role models for young kids."
Upon hearing those words you can imagine a generation of old Origin protagonists scratching their broken noses while trying to work out whether Campbell-Gillard is preparing for Origin battle or a trip to a vegan spa retreat.
Old Blues might even consider him easy prey for the belligerent Queenslanders except, upon the retirement of the super-combative superstar Cameron Smith, the Maroons are now captained by Greg Inglis who is by reputation another new age man.
Inglis's bravest recent act was his public acknowledgement he was suffering depression after a serious injury at the start of the 2017 season.
It is this willingness to publicly deal with his condition, not the condition itself, that sets Inglis apart from those old school types who would consider such a public statement an "admission of weakness".
Accordingly, in the lead-up to this game the talk has been about whether the swift young New South Wales backs can burn Queensland with their speed, or whether the Maroons' still hold an edge in class and experience.
Not a word about punching anyone in the head.
Could the unthinkable be happening and the men of Origin are becoming truly manly?
• Richard Hinds is a leading Australian sports commentator.
