State of Origin 2022: How NSW Blues’ big mouth can help Queensland Maroons

It’s a been a calm Origin build-up for Queensland, but secretly the Maroons would love for a NSW player or official to open their big mouth, writes Robert Craddock.

But Billy Slater is happy the Maroons aren’t being called underdogs ahead of Game I. Picture: Getty Images.

WANTED: A former NSW player-official-coach with a big mouth who can make Queenslanders feel at peace with themselves entering the State of Origin opener.

Gus? Ricky? Paul Gallen? Benny Elias? Can someone please fire up and toss a grenade over the border?

History tells us if there’s two things that rattle Queenslanders at Origin time its calmness and confidence which is why the serene build up to the first game in Sydney has been quietly unnerving for Queensland fans.

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The lead up to the 2022 Origin series has been quiet, which history tells us is bad for the Maroons. Picture: Getty Images.

When Wayne Bennett’s supposedly motley crew of 2020 were branded the worst Queensland side ever it almost felt inevitable from that point they would scrap and scrounge and claw their way to victory – which they did - because the maroons have always fed off denigration.

In the purified world of modern sports it’s considered almost laughably old-fashioned to feed off negative publicity but in State of Origin there’s not one bit of evidence to prove it doesn’t work.

The greater the insult the better Queensland have tended to gel but Origin banter is not what it used to be.

Even when they were winning eight series in a row Queensland somehow would find a way to somehow feed off a taunt – real or imagined – to fire them up.

A hot-blooded Maroons outfit were once stirred to victory by what they felt was a 60 Minutes stitch-up on skipper Cameron Smith even though, as the waters calmed in later years, no-one was quite sure what the show had to do with the Blues.

This year, however, there is a different tone.

Wayne Bennett led Queensland to victory in 2020 with what many called the worst Maroons side ever assembled. Picture: Getty Images.

Queensland are heading to Sydney to a venue where they have won only nine of 29 games and bookmakers have them $2.75 outsiders yet, to the fan on the street absorbing mainstream media, the gap between the two sides is much less than that – if there is a gap at all.

For the first time in years the Queensland team selection has been almost universally applauded, a new coach has been welcomed with great fanfare and even Blues great Andrew Johns has written a column headlined “The Queensland Players who terrify me.’’

It’s all positive and heartening. The question is whether it’s a bit much.

Coach Billy Slater was part of Queensland’s golden generation which trampled the Blues and he wants nothing to do with the underdog tag.

“I don’t care about that (underdog tag); I never once stepped on an Origin field feeling like the other team was better than us and we won’t be starting now,” Slater said.

But Billy Slater is happy the Maroons aren’t being called underdogs ahead of Game I. Picture: Getty Images.

That said, there were some pivotal moments in Queensland rugby league history where some artificial smelling salts were used with stunning effect.

Once in the 1980s Queensland team manager Dick Turner put a Courier-Mail poster outside every players door, in which NSW hooker Benny Elias said Queensland were “a bunch of softies.’’

Benny was not quite as specific as that in the story but it didn’t matter. The poster did it’s job and Queensland won.

On another occasion when coach Arthur Beetson missed out on being appointed Australian coach in the week of a match the players noted how shattered he was and made it their personal mission to beat NSW which they did.