State of Origin III: Queensland call-ups slot in seamlessly as Maroons display awesome strength in depth

WHY did Cameron Smith have to come out and say before the Origin decider that his own form wasn’t up to scratch?

Cameron Smith had an outstanding game for Queensland.

• PAUL CRAWLEY: Queensland call-ups slot in seamlessly
• ANALYSIS: Should NSW move on from Mitchell Pearce?
• WHAT’S NEXT: Does Andrew Johns want to coach the NSW Blues?
• ANALYSIS: Where the decider was won and lost

WHY did Cameron Smith have to come out and say before the Origin decider that his own form wasn’t up to scratch?

Why did Kevvie Walters have to realise his mistake and bring back Billy Slater?

Why did Cameron Munster have to come in for Johnathan Thurston.

Why didn’t Queensland listen to us and pick Daly Cherry-Evans?

In Thurston’s absence, Queensland lost nothing.

MATCH: Blue tears again as Maroons rule

BUZZ: Origin highlights and lowlights

In fact, you’d almost go as far as to say that last night Queensland looked as good as

they have for years.

You think of who they were missing and it made it even more outstanding.

No Thurston, no Greg Inglis, no Boyd and no Matt Scott.

Unbelievable.

Which is the worry for NSW.

Cameron Smith had an outstanding game for Queensland.

How do the Blues recover from what happened at Suncorp Stadium last night?

This was supposed to be the end of the dynasty.

Instead, the Blues look as far away today as they have in years.

What a dominant performance it was on Wednesday night.

And you knew it was coming the moment Smith started questioning his own form last

week.

“I need to do more, there is no doubt about that,” Smith said in the build up.

“I haven’t been happy with my involvement, I want more involvement this game,

particularly with our attack.”

And Smith was good to his word, running from dummy half like he hadn’t done all

series.

By halftime Smith had five runs for 41 metres, which to put in perspective was almost

as many metres as Andrew Fifita (47m) made in his first spell.

Cameron Munster slotted in seamlessly for Johnathan Thurston.

But it was the offloads and second phase play that was killing the Blues, and the back

five from Queensland who were running up a storm.

It gave them great starts to their sets, and with Smith’s outstanding direction

Queensland were by far the better team in the opening 40 minutes.

NSW started well enough but were on the back foot pretty much from the moment of a

fourth tackle mix up in the 7th minute between Pearce and Cordner while attacking the

Queensland line.

David Klemmer (78m) and Jake Trbojevic (59m) made a difference when they came

on, making the most first half metres of any NSW forwards.

NSW did lift their intensity in the opening period of the second half.

But just when they looked to be back in the game Munster came up with the run that

sent Holmes over for his third try with a phenomenal catch.

NSW were bloody lucky Queensland bombed two first half tries otherwise it would

have been game over then and there.

Cronk lost control while diving for a try while Smith made his only mistake when he

held the ball two long with an overlap that would have handed Holmes over for

another.

Not that it mattered in the end as the Maroons ran away with one of their greatest

victories, if not their greatest.

And that’s saying something.