ON the stage proclaimed as the biggest game in State of Origin history, Queensland produced one of its finest hours to destroy NSW 22-6 in Game Three at Suncorp Stadium and give the Maroons an 11th series win in 12 years.
Fittingly, in front of the biggest crowd to ever watch an Origin match at Suncorp Stadium – a record 52,540 – the Maroons were simply enormous in consigning the Blues to another crushing series defeat.
But this loss was not like any other. It will ring in the ears of Blues players, fans, officials and commentators like a hammer smashed into an anvil for years to come.
This series was there for the Blues’ taking, and they couldn’t get the job done.
There was a long list of reasons why this year was going to be too hard for Queensland.
Even before the series began, the Maroons knew they would be without Greg Inglis and Matt Scott – both 10-year campaigners in this glorious Queensland era.
In Game One, the Maroons were shot to bits on their home turf – humiliated as coach Kevin Walters described it – by a Blues team riding on the back of a rampant pack.
There was more bad news. Fulltime was called on the careers of a couple of long-serving stars, while five-eighth Anthony Milford had the pause button pressed on his after just one game because of a shoulder injury.
Somehow, out of the furnace in Sydney, the Maroons emerged victorious and with the series still alive.
Even then, the good news was tempered by bad – with Johnathan Thurston and Darius Boyd both ruled out of the decider with injury, putting the Maroons under even more strain.
So they come to Suncorp Stadium for the decider with Cameron Munster playing his first Origin game in Thurston’s No.6 jersey, an out-gunned forward pack, a patchwork bench and Cameron Smith who – in his own words – had let Queensland down with his performances in the first two games of the series.
There were so many reasons why Queensland would not – could not – win. But they got the job done anyway.
It was the epitome of the famous Queensland spirit, a perfect addition to the Maroons’ hall of fame victories built on toughness, resilience and never, ever, giving up.
Right from the opening whistle, you could feel Queensland’s mentality and resolve were as strong as steel.
True to his word, Smith took the ball and literally led the charge, keeping the Maroons on the front foot with a running game he had tucked away in the first two games.
And his teammates followed him every step of the way.
The Maroons were almost faultless in the first half as they worked their way to a 12-0 lead at the break.
The only blot on their copybook was the fact that the score could have quite easily been 24-0 had they not blown two seemingly certain tries during the first term.
It looked like those mistakes could haunt them early in the second half, as the Blues snatched back some momentum, drawing to within a converted try at 12-6.
With a noticeable lift in energy from NSW, Queensland were struggling to keep their foot on NSW’s throat.
But again, the Maroons responded. They dug deep, and found that little extra something to give – then steamrolled their way to the fulltime siren.
Ultimately, the score was an adequate reflection of Queensland’s dominance, and a reminder – as if another one was needed after 37 years – that Origin games are won with heart and spirit, not on pieces of paper with profiles and price tags.
Dane Gagai, who had another blistering campaign, was fittingly named the Wally Lewis Medal winner as the player of the series, after being denied the man of the match award for his heroics in Game Two.
Gagai became the first winger in Origin history to win the man of the series award.
Smith was a deserved man of the match – a herculean effort in what was his 42nd game for Queensland.
But he must have only just pipped Munster, who was simply breathtaking at five-eighth, and looks perfectly suited to make the jersey his own for the next 10 years.
Valentine Holmes also joined the history books with a three-try haul.
There were brilliant individual performances across the field from the Maroons, but the team performance was worth so much more than the sum of its parts.
Halfback Cooper Cronk summed it up perfectly in a post-game TV interview when he said the Queensland spirit was about something bigger than the individual, and bigger than the game.
The win was important, Cronk said, because it meant a whole bunch of Queensland kids would get up the next morning and go to school happy.
Thurston, denied a fairytale farewell to Origin by his shoulder injury, said in his tribute before the game that – from his first days as a Maroon – he was taught the law all Queensland players abide by: “Don’t let down your state, don’t let down your mate’’.
No one in Queensland feels anything but enormously proud, especially their beaming coach Walters.
“I’m really proud,” Walters said. “What a great night for all Queenslanders.”
QLD 22 (V Holmes 3, J Wallace tries; C Smith 3 goals) d NSW 6 (J Dugan try; J Maloney goal) at Suncorp Stadium. Crowd: 52,540.
