The first two matches had been played under the existing residential selection rules - i.e. Blues players could only be sourced from clubs south of the border and the Maroons only from north of it before the single experimental match took place. This was often a source of angst for Queensland as the old State of Residence rules had long seen some of Queensland's top players actually representing NSW as players could earn better money in the Sydney premiership thanks to clubs cashed up with Poker machine money. As poker machines were illegal in Queensland, most of the clubs could not hope to match the money on offer to their star players, with a steady stream of players leaving to play for Sydney clubs. The list of players who had headed south in the 1960s and 1970s had included Arthur Beetson, John Lang, Rod Reddy, Rod Morris, Mitch Brennan and Kerry Boustead.