The three Origin plays that crowned Edwards man of the match and sealed the Blues victory

As always, Dylan Edwards stood tall for 80 minutes as New South Wales battled to a heroic 14-4 victory over Queensland at Suncorp Stadium in the 2024 State of Origin decider—but it was three immense plays that defined his best-on-ground knock.

“That’s an Origin run,” Andrew Johns said in the Channel Nine commentary as Edwards collected 20 metres through broken Queensland ranks to get the Blues out of trouble.

Download Our FREE NRL App Here

Only, that run wasn’t the whole reason Edwards had been incredible in one of the most pivotal minutes of the 80 on Wednesday evening. To see that, you have to rewind the footage back into the Maroons’ set as they pushed into New South Wales’ red zone. Daly Cherry-Evans passes to Tom Dearden, to Kalyn Ponga, to Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow.

Incredible star power pushing a play to Ponga’s preferred left. And it stops dead after 10 metres.

Why? The “Hammer” has been reeled in by Edwards, pulled down before he can really hit his stride. So Ponga scoops it out at dummy half and sends it long. Dearden spreads it to Cherry-Evans, who’s drifted right. Cherry-Evans gets it to another dangerous player in Queensland fullback Reece Walsh who comes armed with two backs outside him. He hits the line, draws in two, and gets it to Dane Gagai. Gagai muscles up, charges for the line—and gets whacked by Dylan Edwards.

In the nine seconds it took Queensland to switch the play, Edwards had got on his bike, rocketed along the Blues backline, and squared up to stop a second deadly raid. The score was locked at 2-2 and Edwards slammed the door on the home team.

🚨🏉 Dylan Edwards — immense at the back. One of the best #Origin knocks for a fullback? pic.twitter.com/ddnveTkJxN

— The Sporting Base – NRL (@BaseNrl) July 18, 2024

Then comes the play Johns called “an Origin run.” Stifled, the Maroons attack fizzled and the Blues recovered the ball on a turnover. Brian To’o takes a run. Then Zac Lomax. Then, enter Edwards.

The Panthers’ number one took the ball from Lomax’s play, saw Pat Carrigan gassed and hit the acceleration. He broke Queensland’s line, claimed 20 vital metres, and even beat the fresh Ponga now defending in the middle of the park. At 56 minutes, Edwards hit another level in just three plays and set the Blues up for their momentous victory.

[Highlight] Dylan Edwards sprints across the field multiple times to make two consecutive defensive plays, then takes a hit-up 20 metres on the ensuing set to get the Blues out of trouble.
byu/mulimulix innrl

It was a play that wins games, and Edwards did it without breaking a sweat. And, even better, the ever-humble Edwards had little to say about his own performance once the cameras turned to him. Instead, he praised his teammates and even his beaten Queensland foes when he was presented with the match medal by Allana Ferguson.

“We had a great bunch of boys who really ripped in tonight, came here to do our state proud and our families proud and I hope we did that,” Edwards told Nine.

“I thought both teams played it in the Origin spirit with a lot of intensity but believing in the long game and believing in each other got us home. We got a couple of tries late but the scoreline for a lot of that was really tight and no team was giving an inch.”

Enter Our Weekly $250 NRL Tipping Comp Here

Unfortunately, Edwards now faces a few rounds on the sideline after the Blues fullback picked up a suspected torn PCL that he carried throughout most of the second half at Suncorp Stadium.