QUEENSLAND’S QUEST FOR ORIGIN GLORY: A LOOK BACK AT CLEAN SWEEPS SINCE 1982

By Wayne Heming

Three-nil clean sweeps are not common on Origin players’ resumes.

There have only been seven Origin shutouts in 40 years since the best-of-three concept was introduced in 1982.

That’s why it is so important for the 10 players who have the opportunity in Sydney next week to grab the chance to join a band of Queensland players who can lay claim to having been part of all three game wins in a series against NSW.

Billy Slater’s Maroons will be looking to inflict Queensland’s fifth-ever 3-0 whitewash of the Blues who have only achieved the feat three times — the last in 2000.

Queensland pulled off back-to-back clean sweeps in 1988-89, won 3-0 in 1995 and again in 2010 — Origin’s last clean sweep.

In 1988, 10 players were involved in all three wins, in 1989 11 players, in 1995 all 17 players appeared in all three games and in 2010 the tally of players was 14.

Only 52 Queenslanders in total have played in each of the three games of a 3-0 series sweep.

A few of them, like fullback Gary Belcher (1988-89), former captain Trevor Gillmeister, who left his hospital bed against doctor’s orders to help the Maroons secure a shutout in 1995, Martin Bella (1988-89), and Illawarra winger Alan McIndoe (1988-89) achieved the feat twice during their careers.

But some great players, including current assistant coach, Cameron Smith, who ran out a record 42 times for Queensland, have retired without playing all games of a sweep.

He came close in 2010 but was ruled out of the opening before playing the last two Origin wins that year.

The 12 Queenslanders who can etch their names in history as members of the three-game sweepers club in Sydney are: Valentine Holmes, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, Murray Taulagi, Cameron Munster, Daly Cherry-Evans, Tino Faasuamaleaui, Harry Grant, Reuben Cotter, David Fifita, Patrick Carrigan, Ben Hunt and Lindsay Collins, who played in the first two Origin wins in Adelaide and Brisbane.

Current coach Billy Slater and his assistant coaches, Johnathan Thurston, Nate Myles, and Cooper Cronk, were involved in all three of Queensland’s Origin wins in the 2010 series sweep.

Given how hard it is the win a series 3-0, Slater’s players cannot waste the opportunity they’ve set up to bury the Blues in front of their home fans next at Accor Stadium next week.

Forget the “dead rubber” tag.

This third clash could well be the best and most intense of the series for vastly different reasons.

The significance of the occasion is not lost on captain Daly-Cherry Evans who explained he and his teammates had worked most of their careers to get in a position to win an Origin series three-nil.

“This opportunity has taken me and most of my teammates a whole lifetime to get ready for and we are not looking to waste it,”

declared said Cherry-Evans who goes into Origin battle for the 23rd time.

“Our (coaching) staff have spoken to us about the opportunity we have in front of us.

“JT (Johnathan Thurston) touched on it earlier this week. He let a couple of opportunities slip to win a series three-nil and he had some pretty sound advice for the players.”

Cherry-Evans fired a warning shot to his players saying he’d been involved in a dead rubber before when Queensland was trying to save a series.

“I know exactly how this NSW side is going to be,” he said.

Blues coach Brad Fittler has swung the axe for the game with a host of changes after coming under fire from certain sections of the media.

Slater on the other hand took his players to the far north Queensland city of Cairns for a special mini-camp and fan day where they were mobbed by thousands of fans at Barlow Park on Tuesday.

Things appear to be going fairly smoothly for the Maroons who will blood popular forward redhead Corey Horsburgh in Sydney.

Cherry Evans said he always enjoyed having a redhead in his side.

“You think back to Queensland’s day with Paul Vautin,” he said.