2025 State of Origin: Full Event Recap & Stats
State of Origin 2025 was an exciting competition that helped showcase the hard work we’ve been putting into the sport this year. Everything from the fields, to the increase in players, spectators, audience at home and the staff made the day possible, but I will touch on that more soon.
Let’s start with the stats. Over the last 30 days from writing this, we have amassed over half a million views across our social channels with more than 50% of that coming from Instagram, while the other largest percentage is from TikTok.
Our player base saw an increase of 135%, which filled 14 teams across the two states. In addition to that, our spectator numbers were up approx. 200% from the last event.
Diving into game-based stats, the total number of points scored over the weekend were 213, with 133 of those being 1PT tries and the remaining 80 owed to 2PT bonus zone tries. Of those 213 points, 118 were from Queensland, and 95 were from NSW. QLD
Queensland won the inaugural State shield claiming 4 divisions, while NSW only won 3 divisions.
Our individual leaderboards include some expected and some unexpected names. Our range of leaderboards showcasing Top Point Scorer, Try Scorer, Most Regular Tries and Most Bonus Zone Tries are as follows:
Male Top Point Scorers
1. Riley Matenga-Hongara (QLD Prems Mens + Mixed) – 12pts
2. Dylan Kramer (QLD Mens Division 1) – 11pts
3. Tane Cook (QLD Mens Prems, NSW Mixed U20) – 9pts
Female Top Point Scorers
1. Bec Simmo (QLD Women’s Prems) – 9pts
2. Tash Haynes (QLD Women’s Div 1) – 4pts
3. Jasmine Smart (NSW Women’s Prems, NSW Mixed U20) – 4pts
Male Top Try Scorers
1. Dylan Kramer (QLD Mens Division 1) – 10 Tries
2. Tane Cook (QLD Mens Prems, NSW Mixed U20) – 8 Tries
3. Riley Matenga-Hongara (QLD Prems Mens + Mixed) – 7 Tries
Female Top Try Scorers
1. Bec Simmo (QLD Women’s Prems) – 6 Tries
2. Tash Haynes (QLD Women’s Div 1) – 4 Tries
3. Jasmine Smart (NSW Women’s Prems, NSW Mixed U20) – 4 Tries
Male Top 1PT Try Scorers
1. Dylan Kramer (QLD Mens Division 1) – 9 1PT Tries
2. Tane Cook (QLD Mens Prems, NSW Mixed U20) – 7 1PT Tries
3. Jordan Tane Abbott (NSW Mens Prems) – 5 1PT Tries
4. David Dada (QLD Mens Prems) – 5 1PT Tries
Female Top 1PT Try Scorers
1. Tash Haynes (QLD Women’s Div 1) – 4 1PT Tries
2. Jasmine Smart (NSW Women’s Prems, NSW Mixed U20) – 4 1PT Tries
3. Bec Simmo (QLD Women’s Prems) – 3 1PT Tries
Male Top Bonus Zone Try Scorers
1. Riley Matenga-Hongara (QLD Prems Mens + Mixed) – 5 BZ Tries
2. Liam Cherry (NSW Men’s Division 1) – 2 BZ Tries
3. Sam Pollock (QLD Mixed Prems) – 2 BZ Tries
Female Top Bonus Zone Try Scorers
1. Bec Simmo (QLD Women’s Prems) – 3 BZ Tries
2. Renez Bates (NSW Women’s Prems) – 2 BZ Tries
Stats are out of the way, now let’s reflect on the overall results of the tournament.
Women’s Prems: QLD 2-1
Men’s Prems: NSW 3-0
Mixed Prems: QLD 3-0
Women’s Div 1: QLD 3-0
Men’s Div 1: QLD 3-0
Mixed Div 1: NSW 3-0
Mixed U20’s: NSW 2-1
With QLD claiming 4 series to NSW 3, QLD took home the inaugural State of Origin shield.
Moving onto our Individual Awards.
Simon Adermann Player of the Series Medal:
- Male: Kalani Mckenzie-Tonga (NSW Men’s Prems)
- Female: Bec Simmo (QLD Women’s Prems)
Best & Fairest Player Award:
- Male Opens: Ryan Stewart (QLD Men’s Prems)
- Female Opens: Tash Haynes (QLD Women’s Div 1)
- Male U20: Trey Bell (NSW Mixed U20)
- Female U20: Chloe Vera (QLD Mixed U20)
With all the results and stats done, I want to focus on some key areas of discussion post comp. 3 key focus areas are:
- The 5m game, including the format, structure and participants
- The fields, including grass condition, the width and the line marking.
- Rule Clarity, education & resourcing moving forward.
First, the 5m game. There was a lot of controversy surrounding that final, so I am making amendments to how the 5m game works, how we can ensure satisfaction with the result while still making it impactful/entertaining. First major change is that we will be changing the amount of participants from 1 each team to 3 each team.
It will be done in 3x Sudden Death deciders known as “GAMES”. Each “GAME” will consist of 1 of the participants from both teams, who will rock off, with the winner deciding whether they will attack or defend first. Should the defender make a touch, the two players will switch roles until the attacker scores, there is NO second chance, the first attacker to score wins that that GAME. The next GAME will proceed until a winner is declared. In the case that a single team wins the first two GAMES, there will be no need to proceed to the third, and the winning team will be declared. If a team has won a GAME each, the third GAME will commence under the same ruleset as the others. The attacker who scores in that third GAME, will be declared the overall winner.
Moving onto the fields. The grass condition overall isn’t something we have immense control over, but as a team we will be having several contingencies in place going forward to ensure that the field is well kept for our use. In relation to the line marking, will be opting for solid black or blue lines for the outlines, try lines and 6m lines to ensure visibility. White is more professional looking in my opinion, but the lack of visibility made things difficult for both players and referees to make accurate decisions.
Finally, onto education & resources. This something very important to me, a component that is undervalued in all sports across Australia and something that I will look to create as we go. The biggest talking point is our referees and how we can educate new referees coming into our system, as well how we can provide continued learning to our existing cohort. From State of Origin, we have hours of footage both from the livestream as well as drone footage we personally shot to start to formulate a training program that will get the most out of our officials. This will be made available publicly as a resource for our players to get deep insights into the rules also. It is also a major plan to create resource around the very foundations of the game for players from plays down to the basics like catching and kicking.
If you made it this far, I want to take the time to thank you for your time. I would also like to thank all our sponsors Lawn Solutions, NP Roofing as well as Stream Team, Waterford West State School and everyone that helped me out on the day.
As always.. Play Fours.
