Decider squeezed 45 years of Origin tropes into one 80-minute package

For 45 years of State of Origin rugby league, Queensland hasn’t just been to the north of NSW. Queensland has encircled NSW from the west, south and east. Queensland has bubbled up inside NSW, swarming its attacks, infiltrating its defences and haunting its dreams.

This year’s deciding match, at Homebush on Wednesday night, was the whole 45 years in 80 minutes. The Blues started like champions, crisp and fast, so inflated with confidence that kicking the ball away in their first two incursions didn’t seem to matter. They were going to win this by 30 points, no worries. How could they not? Look at the teams on paper!

Then, early, about 10 or 15 minutes in, something happened. Queensland happened.

It wasn’t that the Maroons began playing extraordinarily well, though they did produce the modern coach’s dream of eliminating mistakes and completing their sets. It was more that they forced NSW into an internal collapse.

When the air went out of that bubble, it rushed out.

You could see little Maroon men running around inside the Blues’ heads. Were the Blues tired – after 15 minutes? It was more that they were ambiguous, like the crowd that was booing Cameron Munster but not really booing, given the loss of his father during the week. Trying hard, but unable to locate the feeling.

Blue murder: Hudson Young, Payne Haas and Spencer Leniu contemplate defeat.Credit: Getty Images

What you saw on the field was NSW disambiguating into a group of individuals. Olympic Park Station? Nah, Panic Station. Zac Lomax decided the right-side defence was all up to him; he sprinted out of the defensive line for a game-changing play, hoping to quash a Queensland attack but only giving them a try. His centre partner, Stephen Crichton, had his hands out, looking for his winger. There he was, Lomax, on his knees, swallowed up by his own enthusiasm.

We’ve seen it before, when James Tedesco and Paul Gallen tried to win games all on their own. It’s the patented NSW plan B: individuals trying to produce magic bullets and game-changing moments.

Payne Haas decided to win the match on his own. Liam Martin tried to win the match on his own. Latrell Mitchell decided to win the match on his own. Brian To’o decided to win the match on his own. But while they were busy throwing their opponent over the touch line and producing that game-changing moment, the ball was still in play and Tom Dearden was racing away with it towards Ermington. Fourteen-nil. The Blues, again, gathered under their posts and looked at each other: how did that happen?

Here’s an answer: Queensland.

Tom Dearden goes over for his second try.Credit: Getty Images

Queensland’s third try was another comedy of NSW players falling over themselves and into each other, trying their hearts out with two left feet apiece. Reece Robson made a superb try-saving tackle, but no sooner was he back up than he was getting in Dylan Edwards’ way. Harry Grant, a bowling ball in headgear, clattered around while the Blues defenders fell like ninepins. Even the goalpost had a go, but it bounced off, too.

Unlike in game two in Perth, the Blues couldn’t blame the referee. Ashley Klein was letting their forward passes go and was giving them charity penalties. If this were a close game, the Queenslanders would be whingeing about the ref from here to Christmas. But it wasn’t even close to being close.

At half-time, Phil Gould was saying he didn’t know what was going on. In the dressing room, Laurie Daley’s mouth was moving, but his eyes were saying the same as Gus.

And it has got to be asked: is it one and done for Daley’s coaching comeback? There was so little cohesion from NSW, so little organisation, just a vacuum into which individuals were pouring their best efforts to be a hero, you had to wonder what they’d been doing in camp. In a team nominally led by Isaah Yeo and Nathan Cleary, who haven’t lost an NRL premiership since 2020, there was a complete absence of steering.

The quixotic second-half comeback is also a 45-year-old NSW trope. Haas, Mitchell and the Crichtons were still trying to win the game on their own, and there was a semblance of organisation in the set plays. NSW had enough possession to win three matches, but then there was Hudson Young, of all people, grubbering – trying to win the game on his own. That was the end of their last serious attack.

NSW put together some concerted plays, but whenever they went to the corners, there were more little Queensland men running around inside their heads, little coppertops wearing No.7. How many Tom Deardens were there?

Oh dear, oh Dearden. Fittingly, Munster masterminded the final twist and another of those Deardens scored a try. Connor Watson passed the ball to a Queenslander, and why not? There were a lot more Queenslanders out there, and that’s where they’ll stay for another year.

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