It's all your fault Wayne Bennett: why do so many Canberrans support Queensland?

The nation's capital is basically a big town in the middle of New South Wales. How many of us think we're travelling interstate when we duck over to Queanbeyan to go to Spotlight or grab tacos from Cartel Taqueria? None of us.

Sure, it's easy to hate on NSW, particularly if you're a rugby union supporter, sending spite the Waratahs' way is almost a national sport.

But when it comes to rugby league shouldn't our allegiances be much clearer?

Sure, Canberrans come from everywhere. That's the nature of this transient town. But unless you're actually from Queensland I can't understand why you'd don the maroon jersey at Origin time? You grew up in Melbourne? Why would you even care?

I blame Wayne Bennett (face it, us NSW supporters blame him for a lot of things) for Canberra's love of cane toads. He was the Raiders coach in 1987 and that year was a turning point for the interstate series.

Bennett coached his first Origin in 1986 and Queensland were soundly beaten 3-0 but his first year with the Raiders coincided with the start of a three-year run for the Maroons, with Gary Belcher, Peter Jackson and Sam Backo in the team.

And some bloke called Mal Meninga too. Mal didn't play in 1987 because of that broken arm - 37 years later I still remember the sound of that run-in with the goal post at Seiffert Oval.

Maybe we should blame Mal too. He was, on and off the field, a man people followed.

Over the years 13 Raiders have played for Queensland: Meninga, Belcher, Jackson, Backo, Gary Coyne, Kevin Walters, Steve Walters, Clinton Schifcofske, Adam Mogg, Neville Costigan, David Shillington, Josh Papalii and Dunamis Lui.

The Raiders roster of Blues players is even more impressive, with 20 representatives: John Ferguson, Bradley Clyde, Laurie Daley, Glenn Lazarus, Ricky Stuart, Jason Croker, Brett Mullins, Ken Nagas, David Furner, Ben Kennedy, Ryan O'Hara, Joel Monaghan, Terry Campese, Tom Learoyd-Lahrs, Josh Dugan, Blake Ferguson, Nick Cotric, Jack Wighton and Hudson Young. Luke Priddis played one Super League series.

For a while there, particularly in the early 1990s, the Origin series was like a big Green Machine training run.

Perhaps there's another reason too. Canberra likes a winner, you only have to look at how our crowd numbers wax and wane depending on the fortunes of our footballing codes. Since 2006 Queensland have won all but four series. There's a whole generation of Canberra-born kids who've rarely seen the Blues win.

Maybe Wednesday night that will change and we'll be singing the blues once again.