Queensland retain Origin Shield with dominant Suncorp win

The State of Origin Shield will remain north of the Tweed after the Maroons dismantled the Blues 32-6 in front of a euphoric crowd at Suncorp Stadium last night.

The night could not have started worse for the Blues with Tom Trbojevic helped from the field just three minutes in after succumbing to a pectoral injury in a cover effort.

The hosts laid on a pair of first-half tries to take a double-digit lead into the break before a second-half avalanche sent the cauldron into a frenzy and sunk Brad Fittler’s Blues.

Queensland big man Lindsay Collins was awarded Player of the Match honours for his tradesman-like 136-metre, 29-tackle effort off the bench as Billy Slater added another remarkable series win to his coaching resumé.

Trbojevic’s injury sent the Blues into a spin with Fittler opting to shift Stephen Crichton from left centre to right centre and insert Damien Cook in at left centre.

It was a curious call from Fittler given the fact that Cook has played spent just one of his 186 NRL appearances at a position other than hooker – a 2017 clash in which he was named at fullback.

Queensland’s first try came off a Daly Cherry-Evans kick which prompted a mid-air battle between 194-centimetre Xavier Coates and 183-centimetre Josh Addo-Carr with the ball ricocheting backwards off the hand of the Blues winger and into the in-goal where Valentine Holmes grounded the ball.

The video official dubiously overruled the on-field official deeming that Holmes maintained downward pressure upon grounding the bobbling ball.

The next period of the game was spent camped on Queensland’s line with NSW afforded ample opportunities to respond.

A pair of deft Mitchell Moses kicks were snuffed out by the Maroons before Cherry-Evans pulled off a miraculous chasedown effort on Stephen Crichton who reeled in a grubber metres out from his own line and took off 85 metres downfield.

Shortly after, Cherry-Evans made a break off a Carrigan offload to lay the platform for Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow to take in a questionable David Fifita ball and send Murray Taulagi over.

On the other side of half-time, the Queensland middle strung together some passes to create space for Reece Walsh to send Holmes over for his second and improve the lead beyond two converted tries.

Holmes’ double moved him into outright third on Queensland’s all-time leading try-scorers list with 13.

Queensland’s next try came off an infield Taulagi kick which bounced fortuitously into the waiting arms of a chasing Tabuai-Fidow.

Some purposeful Blues running coupled with a pair of offloads paved the way for Cook to scurry his way between several defenders and dive over next to the posts for the side’s only points.

Another shift caught NSW’s makeshift, left edge short with Reece Walsh hitting a flying Coates who showed off a Superman-esque dive and one-handed putdown to score.

A Cameron Munster kick with six minutes to play forced another Blues error which allowed Jeremiah Nanai to pounce and score an icing-on-the-cake try for the Maroons.

A scuffle broke out in the dying stages which resulted in Walsh and Jarome Luai being sent from the field and Addo-Carr binned.

NSW won the possession, territory, and yardage battles along with the penalty count but exhibited a patchy and muddled attacking structure that rarely troubled Queensland’s up-and-in defensive pattern.

Although Collins was awarded Player of the Match. Walsh was phenomenal for Queensland assisting on a pair of tries and running for 146 metres with seven tackle breaks whilst Munster assisted on a try and ran for a game-high 177 metres.

Payne Haas stood tall in defeat for NSW knocking out 160 run metres and making 41 tackles in 67 minutes.

The result ensured that the etching of Slater’s name in Origin folklore would not be thanks exclusively to his playing career; from making the ballsy call to drop mainstay Dane Gagai for the brilliant Tabuai-Fidow to entrusting 20-year-old Walsh with the keys to the attack, the Maroons mentor has nailed every necessary decision.

NSW are now faced with genuine questions over the viability of Fittler’s future as head coach.

With three series losses from the past four and a growing list of peculiar calls that have ultimately backfired, the former NSW captain’s critics will be at their loudest over the coming days and weeks.

The series will shift to Sydney’s Accor Stadium for a dead-rubber Game III in three weeks with the Blues looking to avoid the state’s first series whitewash since 2010.

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