Great night, NSW, one of the best. But we have to talk about Jake.

You like Jake, we all like Jake. I like Jake so much his replica budgie smugglers are an essential component of my wardrobe.

But 31 minutes in Melbourne after 29 in Sydney? That’s a full-time Jake, part-time player.

Anyone who watches all of Jake’s games knows he was a curious choice as Origin captain. Manly’s director of football is Daly Cherry-Evans. Jake is there to stand in the circle and shout incoherently when they’ve scored a try or given up a soft one. He thinks about rugby league from dawn until he tucks in for an early night. He has a heart as big as the peninsula and he is an 80-minute middle forward. But if he’s only playing 30 minutes, that makes him more of a symbol than an actuality. He is a talisman of pure passion that other players can rally around, but then he could be all that as a run-on trainer, as he is for the Mona Vale Raiders. The kids there, like the Sea Eagles, win games only because they couldn’t bear to disappoint Jake.

After two Origin games, it’s getting harder to see exactly what playing role Michael Maguire has in mind for Jake. When NSW were getting trounced in Sydney, Jake was off for most of the match because they needed fizz on the edge more than stodge in the middle. When they were trouncing the enemy in Melbourne, Jake was off for most of the match because they needed fizz on the edge more than stodge in the middle. In defence, Jake has made 39 tackles in the two games and only missed one, better stats than most. He hardly ever misses a tackle, so Queensland run somewhere else; and now that Cameron Murray is back, the Blues’ defence has two Jakes. In attack, Jake is where the ball goes to die. Sorry, but it is.

Jake is the guy for an 80-minute arm-wrestle - or he was when he was at his peak, before he turned 30. In 2022, Jake was left out of the NSW team for the first Origin game, which they lost. He came back for the second game and was their best player. They lost that one too. Brad Fittler was criticised and Jake was marked ‘never to be dropped again’. When he played 80 minutes he was always the best player in a losing team.

And that’s why we love him. It is one of the intangibles that implanted him deep in Maguire’s subconscious. Before his first series as an Origin coach, Madge made a lot of picking his team on ‘character’. I don’t know what it means either, but if there’s one person in the state who embodies ‘character’ all the way from his nice honest face to his falling-down shorts, it’s Jake.

But if you’re picking a team on ‘character’, what does it say about those who don’t get picked? Does Dylan Edwards have more ‘character’ than James Tedesco? Doubtful, but Edwards is now a better fullback. Does Mitchell Moses have more ‘character’ than Nicho Hynes or Cody Walker? What he has is a better kicking game. Reece Robson has more ‘character’ than Api Koroisau? Were Cam McInnes and Hudson Young demoted for minor shortfalls in the ‘character’ department? Is there a character test that qualifies you for NSW citizenship?