Wednesday night's State of Origin opener saw the series return to the city of Adelaide for the second time since 2020.
It seems the NRL is keen to send our state game around the country and evangelise the peculiarly NSW-QLD love for rugba league into a few cities that aren't Sydney and Brisbane.
Fair play, we reckon, and empty stadium seats notwithstanding, the code reportedly made $5 million from the South Australian state government by taking the game next door, so it can't be a total loss.
But it was nevertheless hard to ignore the clusters of empty seats in the TV footage on Wednesday night. After conceding the code was unlikely to sell out Adelaide Stadium in the lead-up to the match, the official crowd numbers landed somewhere around 48,600 of the 53,500 max capacity.
In any case, all the numbers crunching has us thinking maybe the NRL could use a helpful and friendly guide to brushing up on their charm ahead of the next interstate outing.
Origin returns home to Brisbane in Game II on June 21, and then to the finale in Sydney on July 12, so the code has plenty of time to get some apparently much-needed socialite training in during the offseason before it heads off to try to win a few new friends west of Cessnock and south of Wollongong.
To help things along, we've compiled a good-natured and nothing-but-well-intentioned guide to social graces that the NRL might like to take with them the next time they wander across the border ...
How to win friends and influence people: State of Origin edition
1. When a guest in another state, do as the locals do!
Adelaide has some wonderful sights and has a history as a cultural centre in South Australia (it's that oddly not-NSW-shaped state in the bottom of the map. Adelaide's the city - don't panic if you've never noticed it before, we're told almost everyone from Adelaide has lived somewhere else at one point or another).
You could visit the churches, there's a few of those, or take a walk over to Granite Island and confirm there's almost nothing interesting to do there except walk back.
Or you could follow the local tradition of driving past (without visiting) Peter Van the Party Man on Springbank Road - a favourite pastime, we're led to believe.
You could even snap a holiday pic with the brass pig eating out of a bin in the middle of Rundle Mall.
The point is, not all local customs need to make sense to us east-coasters - some of them will seem a bit whimsical - but it's important to try to join in where we can and take a polite interest.
TOPICS' TIP FOR SOCIAL GRACES: If you want to win friends, try to avoid wandering into Rundle Mall and putting up a huge sign declaring the state in which you are a guest plays a rubbish sport that isn't even "real". Just some food for thought ...
2. An up-to-date guest list is essential to any social occasion
Planning is everything. And nothing ruins a social occasion like a disorganised guest list. A tight list of who's-who helps everyone know what they need to know and - as a bonus - they can show off some of the swankier names who might be rubbing shoulders at the big dance.
Now, it's not that us Knights fans weren't thrilled to see our J-Saf on the billboards (no matter what the sign said about the funny-jumpy red-ball game), but his appearance in the Blues jersey was during last year's decider and after appearing on the billboard, he seemed suspiciously absent from the Blues line-up on the night.
A similar sentiment could be held for QLD billboard counterpart Jai Arrow, who was at least in the QLD squad on Wednesday night, but isn't exactly a recognisable name for those folks we might reasonably assume have only a passing knowledge of the sport.
But at least the boys are facing the right way in the photos ...
TOPICS' TIP: Have you heard of Nathan Cleary? Everyone likes Nathan Cleary.
3. When in doubt, bring a small gift for your hosts
A bottle of Hunter Semillon is a great way to win some friends at just about any party, but poor old Adelaide hasn't had a rugby league team since the late '90s when the Rams folded, so maybe the one bottle won't quite be enough.
The locals have since fallen in love with that other sporting code - and we can't really blame them. The Crows' young bucks put on an impressive show in 2022, even if they only reached 14th on the ladder (better than the wooden spoon, which is how they were initially tipped to perform).
The Power, meanwhile, might have climbed a few steps higher with their 10-12 win/loss tally, but it proved to be their worst performance since 2016.
(On second thought, maybe they're not the best example to sell the code on).
The point is, if the NRL is really keen on winning new friends in those states that aren't here, it might be worth investing in a bit more than one big game of "real footy" across the border at a time.
We're not saying the Adelaideans will always share our love of league - they seem pretty happy with their AFL and frog cakes to even take a charrnce on our game - but it could be worth a shot.
Who knows? League could be as popular as an old Redhen rail car if we can only avoid kicking our new friends in the shins before we've even said hello.
And now, a few more topics of note ...
Topics' correspondence
Tallwoods Village man Gary Jones has been reading The Phantom comic strip for years, and keeps up with the updates in the pages of the Herald.
He wrote in recently, snapping this pic of a near-Skull Cave lookalike spotted in the Yasawa Islands group in Fiji.
Thanks for the holiday snap, Gary!
Things to do in Newcastle and the Hunter
The Hunter Wetlands Centre will observe World Environment Day on Sunday, June 4, between 10am and 2pm.
Activities have been planned including tree planting (visitors are encouraged to bring gardening gloves), wetland walks, a guided canoe tour and dipnetting for kids.
Entry is set at $5 and all are invited to attend.
Weird news: 'He kidnapped the Dominos guy!'
A NSW man has been charged with allegedly "kidnapping" a Domino's delivery driver in Orange. A $5 bottle of Sunkist soft drink was also reportedly stolen.
"It was random ... he's kidnapped the Domino's guy," magistrate David Day said during a bail hearing. Bail was denied and a trial is expected in the next 18 months.
Simon McCarthy writes Topics daily for the Newcastle Herald. Contact the writer by email at topics@newcastleherald.com.au or join the discussion in the comment section below.
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