Maroons give Sydney a case of the Monday morning blues

Queensland’s Maroons have laid claim to Sydney with the Maroon flag flying high over Sydney Harbour this morning in honour of last week’s record five series win.

Premier Anna Bligh said she was pleased New South Wales had honoured its bet with Queensland by erecting the flag on the Sydney harbour bridge.

This is the first time that a Maroon flag has flown over Sydney instead of the Queensland state flag which is too hard to distinguish from the NSW state flag from that height.

“I have to admit I do feel a little bit sorry for the Sydney-siders driving over the bridge this morning – they will be suffering a real case of the Monday morning blues,” said Ms Bligh.

“But there’s also quite a few Queenslanders working in Sydney so I hope it was a very happy Maroon Monday for them.

“What a great way to start the Maroon flag tradition with Queensland taking a clean sweep of the Origin series – the first in 15 years.”

The maroon flag was hoisted on the landmark on Monday as part of the annual bet between the Premiers of the two states.

At 8.45am the flag was raised on the bridge where it will stay until next Tuesday.

Premier Anna Bligh again congratulated the Queensland Maroons who scored their first State of Origin clean sweep in 15 years last night.

Darren Lockyer’s magnificent Maroons wrapped up the Origin series with a 23-18 win at ANZ stadium.

“I think it is still sinking in for a lot of Queenslanders but our team did us all proud last week this flag is a suitable marker for that,” she said.

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