May 3: Mal's blue pep talk for Maroons; Eels' salary cap woes

On this day, Queensland captain Mal Meninga raised eyebrows with a profanity-laced rev-up for his players, Jesse Bromwich arrived in the world, while the Eels were slugged for salary cap breaches.

1989

Jesse Bromwich is born in Auckland. Standing 1.96m and weighing 114kg, Bromwich has played 278 games with the Storm since joining the club in 2010. He has represented his country 29 times.

1993

New South Wales survive a concerted Queensland comeback to win the first State of Origin match 14-10 after leading 12-10 at half-time.

Ricky Stuart is named man of the match. Mal Meninga finds himself in hot water after Channel Nine’s microphones catch his R-rated pre-match pep-talk to his Queensland teammates.

2009

For the first time since 1924, Australian selectors name an all-Queensland backline in the Test team to face New Zealand on May 8. Wests Tigers halfback Benji Marshall is named captain of the New Zealand side.

2014

Samoa qualify for the end-of-season Four Nations tournament by disposing of Fiji 32-16 in a highly-entertaining Test at Sportingbet Stadium. Earlier in the night, New South Wales continued their dominance of the Under-20s State of Origin clash when they downed Queensland 30-8.

2015

Incumbent NSW five-eighth Josh Reynolds is reported twice by match officials as his City Origin team goes down 34-22 to Country at Wagga’s McDonald’s Park. A capacity crowd of 9,127 watches the game.   

2016

Parramatta’s most promising season in years is thrown into disarray when NRL boss Todd Greenberg announces the penalties for the club’s salary cap excesses.

The Eels are stripped of the 12 premiership points accumulated after the first nine rounds, the club is fined $1 million and five officials are deregistered over their involvement in the scandal.

This article contains information from the official records of NRL historian David Middleton.