State of Origin: Matt Burton bashing in 2022 the catalyst for Blues’ aggressive tactics against Maroons
It’s the moment that lives in the minds of the Blues players, and it has come back to haunt the man-handled Maroons as they fight to regain control of the State of Origin series.
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If the man-handled Maroons are looking for someone to blame, they don’t need to look any further than recalled centre Dane Gagai and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui for the bullying they suffered at the hands of NSW in State of Origin II.
The Blues are unapologetic about their new-found mongrel and have pledged to raise the stakes physically in next week’s decider at Suncorp Stadium.
Which is exactly where the Blues bullies were born in 2022.
Gagai infamously punched Matt Burton multiple times as Fa’asuamaleaui put the Blues star in a headlock during a spiteful moment in the series decider.
The incident happened behind play as NSW were defending their line, which left Burton outnumbered and his Blues teammates “embarrassed” and “pissed off” at watching it unfold.
NSW hard man Liam Martin said that under coach Michael Maguire, the Blues have made a pledge to never let the Maroons intimidate them again.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Martin said when asked if the days of the Maroons strongarming them were over.
“This team, we all have one another’s back and we won’t take a backward step.
“We won’t be pushed around. We’ll be chasing the physicality and doing whatever it takes as a team, together.”
Martin has earned himself the public enemy No.1 tag in Queensland yet again after unleashing a reign of terror on the Maroons’ big men in the first two games of the series. He produced a highlight reel of bone-crunching tackles on the likes of Reuben Cotter and J’Maine Hopgood.
In game two, Martin was part of a ferocious tackle on Jaydn Su’A that dislodged the ball. He patted Su’A on the head in the aftermath which sparked a melee and subsequently got him sin-binned.
It hasn’t stopped Martin promising more fireworks on Wednesday night.
“We just went after it physically and that’s just what we wanted to do,” Martin said.
“We were happy with that. But we have to go to another level now, we can’t just be happy with that game.
“We have to go up again.”
Martin is relishing how easily he can get under the skin of Queenslanders, predicting what they’ll call him when he touches down in Brisbane.
“Probably grub, or something like that,” Martin said.
“I don’t try to buy into it too much. It won’t affect my game.
“I don’t lose too much sleep over it.”
While Martin won’t be losing any shut eye ahead of the decider, Queensland’s forward pack would not be blamed for having nightmares.
Blues ‘fireball’ Spencer Leniu is also ready to unleash on Queensland after the explosive Sydney Roosters prop caused havoc with his back-fence carries against St George Illawarra last weekend.
The cheers of Allianz Stadium will be replaced by the jeers from a hostile Suncorp Stadium crowd.
“It won’t faze him,” Martin said. “It will probably drive him on a bit.
“He is that kind of player that will lift the intensity and that’s why we love him and love playing with him.
“That’s him, he fires himself up and wants people to fire him up.
“We call him fireball because he gets going and it’s awesome to play alongside — it’s not so fun to be up against.
“We were into him before, asking if the next time he plays us (at Penrith) ‘can you run at Romey (Jarome Luai)?’.”
Former Penrith teammate Isaah Yeo said Leniu was thriving in the role of menace and had earned the right to his newly discovered swagger.
“I actually hadn’t seen that side of him before, you could just see he was loving the moment,” Yeo said.
“When you carry like that off every kick-off and the crowd’s getting behind you, you can do whatever you want, he was certainly loving it,” Yeo said.
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