Crash Craddock: Queensland will bounce back to claim series at Suncorp Stadium

The Maroons were unable to overcome the mental aspect of winning a series in Game 2, but a decider at Suncorp Stadium will be a magnificent motivator.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 26: Daly Cherry-Evans of the Maroons reacts at full-time following game two of the men's State of Origin series between New South Wales Blues and Queensland Maroons at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on June 26, 2024 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Call it the Suncorp Stadium syndrome. It was a key factor in last night’s thrashing and the reason why Queensland will win the decider.

State of Origin is a crazy beast. The bigger the thrashing Queensland copped from an all-time great Blues performance last night the more you liked to be on them to win the decider.

The humiliation will be a magnificent motivation tool for Billy Slater.

The Queensland team which looked flatter than a steamrolled pancake early will have motivation dripping from their nostrils in the third game.

They would want to. Never in interstate football has there been such an unexpected shellacking as the one dished out by the rampaging Blues in the first 40 minutes.

The old warhorse Trevor Gillmeister said it best on match eve. State of Origin game twos are won in the head.

So often – in fact seven of the last eight times – the team who won the first game lost the second if they were playing away or at a neutral venue.

Queensland were urged all week to forget about the fact that they had a third game safety net at Suncorp Stadium but they just couldn’t do it.

Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow’s try showed promise. Picture: NRL Photos/Gregg Porteous

They had the thought of that soft and luxuriously warm safety net running through their heads and played like a team who simply couldn’t concentrate on the present.

It was a dreadful performance but the Blues, it must be said, were superb. The first half was as good as Origin team has ever played.

Had the Blues lost the game it would have been their 15th series loss in the last 19 rubbers.

This was the night when NSW said “we are as mad as hell and we are not going to take it anymore”.

At halftime Queensland has missed 23 tackles to the Blues three. NSW had run a staggering 924 metres – more than nine football fields – to 339 metres by the Maroons.

These are staggering statistics. Even back in the 1970s when Queensland sides were being chosen out of the Brisbane competition this type of absolute domination was a rarity.

In the 1970s, when Queensland were so obviously outclassed, they at least stayed in games by playing with absolute ferocity. But there was nothing ferocious about the Maroons early.

Queensland barely had a solid player never mind an outstanding one.

Daly Cherry-Evans tried hard but spent the night on the back foot. Reece Walsh had flashes of brilliance but felt the force of brutal defensive surges by the Blues and occasionally over tried.

Reece Walsh couldn’t crack the game open. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

The pace and grace of Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Murray Taulagi created flickers of promise out wide and will ignite the masses if they shine in the decider.

The Maroon pack was dominated by their rivals in a way few Maroon packs have in Origin history.

Payne Haas, often seen as a Clark Kent style figure at Origin rather than the Superman he is for the Broncos, had his best Origin game as he rumbled forward like a four wheel driven stuck in third gear and managed several classy off-loads.

He looked like man with a point to prove and prove it he did.

Liam Martin, the sort of fiery-eyed madman every Origin team can do with, was again a man inspired and deserves to win the man of the series award if the Blues win the last game.

The return of superstar Latrell Mitchell helped inflate the Blues mojo. He looked big, He played big. He ragdolled Walsh in a tackle and when the game was on the line early he was in a lot of things that mattered.

Mitchell is a dangerous force. The Blues look strong and nigh-unbeatable if they keep this form.

But we’ve heard that line before (winking emoji).

Originally published as Crash Craddock: Queensland will bounce back to claim series at Suncorp Stadium