QUEENSLAND will go back to the drawing board to try to salvage a series and save a dynasty after being blown off Suncorp Stadium by the reborn Blues in State of Origin I.

What was supposed to be a night of celebration around skipper Cameron Smith becoming the first man to play in 40 Origin games exploded on the tarmac with a 28-4 defeat, the Maroons third-biggest belting in their Origin history.

The Maroons now must do it the hard way if they are going to win this series, by going to Sydney on June 21 to beat the Blues and square the ledger.

A shattered Smith made it clear that is precisely the Maroons’ mission.

“It’s one (NSW) victory,” he said.

“They will be pleased with the result, but it’s one game, it all starts again. We know we have to go to Sydney and win and if we don’t, the series is over.”

Queensland were willing but out-gunned, as the behemoths in Blue – lead by man of the match Andrew Fifita – destroyed Maroon hopes and broke Maroon hearts in a second-half onslaught Queensland were powerless to repel.

There were two key turning points for the Maroons.

The first came 33 seconds before halftime when Blues halfback Mitchell Pearce crossed for try that was like a dagger to Queensland’s heart.

The Maroons had weathered an early storm from the Blues and looked set to go to the break only a respectable 6-4 in arrears. But Pearce’s try gave the Blues an eight-point buffer, and caused Queensland heads to drop.

The second moment was the killer blow.

In the 55th minute and with the Maroons hanging onto the match by their fingernails, centre Justin O’Neill spilled the ball while taking a hit-up off his own tryline, and Fifita pounced on the ball to score.

The scoreline went from a difficult 18-4 to an impossible 24-4. And Queensland’s night was over.

For all the brave faces leading into the game, it was clear the Maroons missed their all-star trio of Johnathan Thurston, Greg Inglis and Matt Scott, who were all missing through injury.

Inglis and Scott are out for the season, and Thurston concedes he is long odds to be fit for Origin II, which means Queensland coach Kevin Walters is going to have to find rejuvenation and reinforcements from other areas.

And with a bevy of young stars waiting in the wings – like Valentine Holmes, Coen Hess and Jarrod Wallace – there will be a call for a changing of the guard after such a capitulation.

But Queensland coach Kevin Walters said those decisions would be made by clear heads, once the shock and sting of such a painful loss had been given a chance to subside.

“We’ll have a look,” Walters after the game.

“I’m not going to make any decisions now. I’ll have a look at where we were inept and will make some decisions around that.

“I’m not sure if we’re going to make changes. We’ll look at the video and make some smart decisions.

“We got a bit of a lesson. We all fell away through the middle and they didn’t give us anything.”

While the game is lost, hope is not. There were some positives out of the Maroons’ loss – most notably quality debuts from rookies Dylan Napa and Anthony Milford, and the continuing electric Origin form of winger Dane Gagai.

Plus, as has been the case so many times in the past, history is on Queensland’s side. They have come back from one game down in the series to lift the shield at the end of game three before.

Right now the task looks enormous, impossible even. The odds will be against them, and everyone south of the border will be writing Queensland off.

And that is when the Maroons always manage to find something special.

NSW 28 (A Fifita J Hayne J Maloney M Pearce J Tedesco tries J Maloney 4 goals) d QLD 4 (C Oates try) at Suncorp Stadium.
Crowd: 50,300.