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“We sort of knew that they were going to,” Yeo noted.
Not least because whenever the Maroons have scuppered NSW – suffocating and frustrating the Blues into error – it has been with the exact same blueprint.
Christian Welch made an Origin career out of hassling Cleary. Dane Gagai built his own ‘Origin Gagai’ alter-ego by consistently rushing in whenever a Penrith-style sweeping shift was plotted by the Blues. You wouldn’t know it, but the above clip is from 2022, not 2025.
With three shifts inside the first 15 minutes, the Blues attacked flat and fast to left-edge strike weapons Angus Crichton and Latrell Mitchell, only for Rob Toia, Val Holmes and Tom Dearden to get the jump and douse their efforts.
Andrew Johns was left lamenting “no Plan B” in response from the Blues. After an early Liam Martin break down the opposite edge, Stephen Crichton didn’t see any attacking ball aside from tough carries out of trouble.
No play summed up just how clunky the Blues attack was than the follow-up to their best defensive set of the game – when Queensland were pinned down in their own 20-metres while trailing 14-0.
The Blues finally came right with their good field position, but it was from a flat-footed run by Spencer Leniu a moment earlier, Nathan Cleary directing him back inside as easy pickings for the Maroons markers. The sweep play that followed finished with Dylan Edwards’ pass missing the mark and a turnover, but like so much of the NSW attack, it never looked like troubling Queensland either.
‘Out-muscled, out-worked, out-Origin’d’
No single player summed up the difference in “Origin mindset” than Dearden, and the two highlight-reel plays he starred in.
The Queensland No.7’s first try could so easily have been the turning point for NSW as they bundled Toia toward the tryline, only for Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow to be perfectly placed - just in case - for a desperate pass in-field.
Angus Crichton and Reece Robson were only half a step off the pace, but half a step is all the advantage the Hammer has ever needed.
Dearden’s try-saving shot on Brian To’o meanwhile, was the kind of effort that will live long in Queensland folklore. When was the last time To’o - a small tank with arms and legs - was stopped with the tryline in sight?
Out kicked and chased, too
As for the NSW kicking game, it was off all night. Jarome Luai inexplicably started with a dinked chip that sailed too long for Valentine Holmes to easily field it and claim a seven-tackle set.
His and Cleary’s kicks repeatedly sailed a metre or two long for Xavier Coates to handle on his ears, with Queensland teammates expertly escorting the Blues’ kick-chasers out of contention. As NSW’s first-half fatigue mounted, it was a Coates return – when he sprinted past a lagging chase – that led to Dearden’s try a few tackles later. Queensland, meanwhile, presented Dylan Edwards with one big imposing Maroon wall all night.
Ill-discipline opens the door
No blaming Ash Klein for this one. If anything, the 50-50 calls in the decider went the Blues’ way. In a first half that finished with Queensland leading 20-0, NSW had the better of a 3-2 penalty count.
Hooker Reece Robson tackled anything that moved – to the tune of two costly penalties leading to Maroons tries.
Along with 29 first-half tackles, Robson twice dragged down Queensland support players late in the tackle count as the Blues scrambled. His holding back of Tom Dearden bled into the Maroons’ first try to Coates, before the real killer leading into half-time. NSW didn’t touch the ball again after the previously mentioned right-side play breakdown between Edwards and Lomax.
It took a captain’s challenge to set the record straight, but Robson was pinged for dragging Tabuai-Fidow out of play in support through the middle in the 35th minute. A 14-point deficit was stretched further soon enough.
The bench and middle rotations
With Queensland playing outright perfect Origin football and not making a mistake until the 69th minute, NSW ended up tackling for an extra 10 sets in the first half.
By the final few minutes, it well and truly showed. Yet Daley only went to his bench twice – replacing the ineffectual Max King with Stefano Utoikamanu after 23 minutes, and then giving Payne Haas a deserved breather after 30 minutes.
Hudson Young was the Blues’ best forward during their second-half comeback in Perth but wasn’t called upon until the second half, while Connor Watson too sat idle as tackle counts for Robson, Yeo and Haas all mounted.
So when Robson held Tabuai-Fidow back, Munster forced a repeat set with a pinpoint kick and Grant had real momentum to run with, it was at a defensive line on its last legs.
The glaring defensive lapses
For the most part, NSW scrambled well enough to keep themselves in it despite momentum mounting against them. Before the lactic acid built, though, Zac Lomax was all at sea for Queensland’s first try.
Cooper Cronk didn’t miss his off-kilter rush in-field on Gehamat Shibasaki, either, in commentary on Fox Sports.
“That’s a poor miss at this level,” Cronk said.
“Zac Lomax knew that play, he saw it coming and he had a left-shoulder tackle. He could’ve absolutely wiped out Shibasaki but missed the tackle. He pushed through and Xavier Coates scores the first try.”
By the 38th minute, Grant was burrowing hard and low at the Blues line following three quick play-the-balls.
Edwards, Yeo and Crichton couldn’t get a handle on the game’s best dummy-half as he twisted and turned, while Utoikamanu simply didn’t put himself in a position to either.
Just as his marker defence was found wanting by the Queensland hooker when he set up Munster’s try in Perth, Utoikamanu didn’t push up on the inside when Grant began wrestling his way to the tryline on Wednesday night.
The seventh sin: All of the above
And that, as Gould, Johns, Cronk, Yeo, Cleary and anyone else who had eyes on Origin could tell you, was how it went.
NSW found themselves thoroughly “out-muscled, out-worked and out-Origined’ by a Queensland side that simply nailed everything it takes to triumph in this arena.
That all too familiar feeling will linger until at least this time next year - that what the Maroons have known all along, the Blues are still trying to work out.
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Michael Chammas and Andrew “Joey” Johns dissect the upcoming NRL round, plus the latest footy news, results and analysis. Sign up for the Sin Bin newsletter.
