Women's rugby league exists in a constant conversation with its own growth and its own future. A game is not only a game, it's a look into what's possible with more time, more investment and more faith in the sport's prospects.
The progression in the five years since the women's interstate challenge was rebranded under the Origin banner has been steady and continuous, and now the product is strong enough to survive on its own two feet.
It's why that even though Queensland's 18-10 victory over New South Wales was far from a classic, women's Origin and women's rugby league is big enough to wear a couple of rough ones.
Its strength is plain to see in the concept itself – this marked the first time the series is played across two matches and its first time in a stadium as large as Bankwest Stadium.
Purists might yearn for the days when these matches were played at quaint, old school venues like North Sydney Oval but the truth is the women's Origin match has outgrown those places.
The crowd of 12,972 was the biggest in women's Origin history. Given Queensland haven't had a home game in two years they'll give that number a shake in Townsville later this month.
There are real signs of progress and it feels sustainable. There is a demand for this and it must be supplied.
The challenge now is finding the right place for women's football among an already crowded rugby league schedule.
Running it alongside the men's Origin series makes sense from a branding perspective and opens up opportunities for standalone fixtures in prime time, but given the NRLW runs towards the end of the season it means plenty of players hit Origin cold.
Last season's Origin in Canberra hit a new level in terms of the standard of play because it came off the back of a full NRLW season. It was a level this game could not hope to match, and ultimately it did not as errors plagued both sides in the scrappy encounter.
While this was far from the elite product we have come to know it's easy to understand why — the second-tier competitions in both states have been over for weeks.
Queensland skipper Ali Brigginshaw made note of the jump from the state competitions to Origin and Blues coach Kylie Hilder pointed out some of her charges had only played two matches since last year's World Cup.
This is the highest level of the women's game and arriving to it fully formed, weeks after one's last game, is a tall order for any player.
Dropped balls and ill-timed passes were the order of the night, and while there was plenty of toughness and spirit, the flashes of brilliance — such as Tamika Upton's bullet pass to Julia Robinson for the opening Queensland try and Blues winger Jamie Chapman chasing down Shenae Ciesiolka — were, for the most part, exceptions rather than the rule as both sides struggled to get their game together.
Origin can be like that sometimes, high on effort and intensity but rough around the edges. In such games the team who can rise above the knife fight in the mud end up taking home the prize and this time – and you might have heard this one before – it was the underdog Queenslanders who found a way as New South Wales drowned in a sea of errors.
The Maroons slowly inched towards victory as the clever organisation led by halfback Zehara Tamara and lock Brigginshaw punished the Blues on the edges of the ruck where injuries – on the morning of the match to winger Tiani Penitani and during the game to centre Isabelle Kelly, who was hospitalised with a frightening throat injury – left them vulnerable.
It wasn't highlight reel stuff but there's something better than playing pretty and that's winning and the only thing better than that is doing it against the odds. Queensland wouldn't have cared if every set ended with a dropped ball so long as they finished the game on top.
Tahnee Norris' side is now well-placed to wrap up the series in Townsville. The two-match structure is unwieldy – a win is not enough for New South Wales, they'll need to get up by nine points or more to retain the shield – but it will guarantee a compelling spectacle and after this match both sides will be far, far better for the run.
That's the next step for women's rugby league, the next thing on the horizon as the game continues to head towards that future which exists so closely alongside the present.
Getting there shouldn't be a problem, so long as the right place for it can be found and it's put in a position to succeed.
