Queensland has belted New South Wales 32-8 in State Of Origin three.
The Maroons dominated most of the game in terms of field position and quality possession and New South Wales rarely got at chance to attack the Queensland line during the match.
While the Blues managed to hang in early, and even managed to be trailing by just 2-6 at halftime, the Maroons field position and willingness to throw the ball around a little more proved too much. They wore New South Wales down and eventually ran away with the match.
In truth, this was was a strange game to watch.
With the series already wrapped up there simply wasn’t the same tension in the match that we have become use to seeing in State Of Origin games over the years. While New South Wales were brilliant in defense at times, you could tell that desperation wasn’t there because the Blues knew the job was already done.
At the same time I think we saw Queensland playing a lot more freely themselves. The Maroons played like a side that didn’t want to lose in games one and two. In game three they had nothing to lose and they took a few chances that they normally wouldn’t have had the series still been on the line.
State Of Origin three was not too bad. It was better than State Of Origin two in terms of attacking football, but didn’t come close to the epic contest that was State Of Origin one.
As a New South Wales supporter I would have loved to have seen what happened had the Blues swept the series. I wanted to see what Queenslands reaction would be. Not the stupid, hysterical, meme culture reaction on social media…I’m talking about Queensland management. I wanted to see if it would have lead to generational change in the Maroons side.
That isn’t a dig at Queensland or even the current side. I really would have just been interested to see if they stuck with the same team next year or if they would have gone for wholesale changes.
I think the game three loss leaves the door open for changes to the New South Wales team. While the Blues won the series I think it is fair to say there is still a lot of room for improvement. Selectors will obviously be reluctant to make too many changes to a series winning side, but I think the form of a few players will force their hand just under a year from now.
So, Queenslands historic run is over. New South Wales are the State Of Origin champions. While they lost game three, I’ll be honest, I didn’t really care. The Shield is currently in NSW…where it belongs!
