A raft of headlines reported on a fascinating finding that linked State of Origin matches to a spike in domestic violence.
For instance, the SBS report ran the headline "Study exposes 'clear' Origin link to DV" (where DV is domestic violence).
Big story because basically, the data showed that between 6pm on State of Origin night to 6am the following morning, domestic violence increased by 40%. Incidentally, non-domestic violence (blokes beating up other blokes) went up by 70% as well.
Despite this sobering result, the media have leapt on this story, and spun a long drinking yarn. Specifically, they have drawn conclusions about the involvement of alcohol in all of this - even though alcohol consumption is not directly observed in the original study in any way.
