Call that an Origin brawl?

More like a powder puff, according to former NSW enforcer Luke O’Donnell.

Although it led to four players being sent to the sin bin, O’Donnell said the second-half melee was barely worth talking about.

“I was laughing to be honest, because it just looked odd,” the Sydney Roosters utility said on Thursday.

“It was a weird atmosphere. The crowd went a bit quiet – or it seemed that way – and it was a bit of a fizzer to be honest.

“It just looked all a bit sterile, pedestrian … nothing like what I’m used to seeing when it’s Origin.”

Referees Shayne Hayne and Ashley Klein followed an anti-fighting edict from the ARL Commission to the letter and sin-binned NSW’s Trent Merrin and Greg Bird and Queensland’s Brent Tate and Justin Hodges for their roles in the 54th-minute incident.

Merrin was the only player who threw a punch and has been hit with a one-game suspension.

“Fighting’s not a part of the game but if things boil over in the heat of the moment, that’s just something that adds to the excitement,” O’Donnell said.

The former Blues and Kangaroos hard man was handed a three-game suspension for a dangerous throw on Darius Boyd in the second game of the 2010 series.

He believes officials should not tinker with the fabric of the interstate series.

“It is part of the spectacle of State of Origin, and it’s not about the fighting. It’s about the emotion of it all,” O’Donnell said.

“It would be a shame to just put a cap on that sort of thing.

“That’s what the fans hang on the edge of the seats for.

“People need to realise that’s the way it has been for how many years and I think that’s the way it should remain.”