State of Origin II: NSW Blues find recipe to Queensland Maroons’ secret sauce

It wasn’t what Beetson and Meninga said to their troops that mattered. It was that those troops dreaded letting them down. The same can’t be said for Paul Green.

Dejected Queensland captain Daly Cherry-Evans after the loss. Picture: Peter Wallis

There’s only one thing worse than a lockdown – that’s a meltdown.

While Greater Sydney was in Covid lockdown, not so great Queensland was in meltdown on Origin morning over the muffed selection of winger Ronaldo Mulitalo and the mood did not improve at Suncorp Stadium where they were beaten 26-0 before 50,000 fans.

The result, which gives the Blues a 2-0 series win with one match to play, was no shock for this NSW team, one that is arguably their greatest in Origin history.

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Pace, strength, footy smarts and – most concerning of all because it’s traditionally been Queensland’s secret sauce – team unity are trademarks of this great side.

Queensland are totally outclassed and the gap between the teams seems as wide as it has been in Origin and capable of being sustained for years to come.

The Maroons scored just six points in two games which says everything about their lack of attacking spark.

Dejected Queensland captain Daly Cherry-Evans after the loss. Picture: Peter Wallis

While Queensland’s team is something of a patchwork quilt, the Blues have it all and it is a measure of their quality that Queensland’s effort was not seen as a total disaster.

Queensland started the game as if they had been fired out of a cannon but ferocity can only match class for so long.

The game turning events that used to go Queensland’s way – like an intercept try when the game was on the line early – as Latrell Mitchell did midway through the first half.

Late inclusion Xavier Coates looked set for all the world to score in the corner before the dynamic Tom Trbojevic targeted not the man but the arm carrying the ball and knocked it out.

Queensland have now lost three of the last four series and NSW will enter next season’s contest high on success with a unit bonded by the celebrations that come with emphatic victories.

Queensland have made an art form of underdog glory but sometimes you simply cannot defy gravity and when you go looking for something up your sleeve all you find is a sweaty arm pit.

The game is so fast now that great players – and NSW is full of them – make mediocre players look cumbersome.

The most non-parochial judges of all, the bookmakers, were having nothing of Queensland fairytale offering an almost insulting $5 for a Maroon win at kick-off. Normally for a Queensland side to be that price at Suncorp Stadium they would have to spend three hours at the Caxton Hotel before the game.

The result was not a surprise because Queensland were off-balance all series. Not even the sugar shot of the first game being in Townsville could shake that impression.

Controversy tends to stalk losing teams in Origin like a pride of lions cornering a wounded buffalo on the wide open plains. Every stumble is accompanied by a sense of looming gloom.

Queensland were smashed in game one when they played a host of injured players and injury stalked them again.

The late withdrawal of Reece Walsh hurt and the embarrassing withdrawal of Mulitalo because he did not meet the selection criteria made the QRL offices look as shambolic as your local Saturday morning sports canteen when someone points out Billy Bloggs should not be playing in the under-15s because he’s 15 already.

NSW have unlocked the recipe of great rep teams. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

You expect it at junior level. But Origin? On match day? It’s not as if the kid appeared from nowhere.

Coach Paul Green is a shrewd match tactician but successful Queensland coaches tend to have a weapon which in Origin can be more important than tactics … an aura.

It wasn’t so much what the Arthur Beetson’s and Mal Meninga’s said to their troops that mattered it was more the fact that those troops dreaded the thought of letting them down that drove the Maroons to such crazy heights.

The worrying thing for Queensland is that NSW are turning Queensland’s best qualities against them.