Maroons write fresh chapter with spirited Origin win
Scott Bailey |
Billy Slater believes Queensland’s 2025 series win belongs among the Maroons’ most spirited State of Origin triumphs, after defying history to lift the shield in Sydney.
Wednesday night’s 24-12 win at Accor Stadium made Slater’s men the first Maroons to come back from 1-0 down with two straight games on the road.
It also came after the most unlikely month, which included the axing of captain Daly Cherry-Evans after Queensland’s series-opening 18-6 loss at Suncorp Stadium.
His replacement Tom Dearden proved the star of the show for Queensland, named man of the series after being best on field in Wednesday night’s decider.
Queensland fielded the most inexperienced Origin centre pairing of this decade, while captain Cameron Munster played just four days after the sudden death of his father.
Slater’s side had made the Maroons’ 1995 series win a theme for this year’s series, after a side missing all Super League-signed players shocked NSW 3-0 that year.
The decimated Maroons’ 2020 series win is also regarded as one of the state’s best, along with their victories in the early days of the Origin concept.
Slater said his group could now lay claim to one of the most spirited series wins by the Maroons.
“They’re right up there,” Slater said.
“It is a true Queensland team. It’s been a true Queensland performance. That’s no disrespect to anyone else, but you look over the history of this footy team.
“In 1995 in particular. They had no Super League players. Ben Ikin was 18, players picked out of reserve grade.
“To win that first game 2-0, that held a whole heap of resilience, spent a lot of time on their try line.
“That was something we dove into, just the way that they went about it … We appreciated that and I saw that out there tonight.”
Under pressure himself as recently as a month ago, Slater now has three series wins in four years as Maroons coach.
“I’m so proud of this group,” Slater said.
“I’ve been proud of this group a number of times over the last four years, and I don’t know if I’ve been any more proud than tonight.
“There’s been a lot of hurdles to overcome. It’s an incredible feeling and I’m sure five and a half million people are feeling the same thing.”
The Maroons were near perfect on Wednesday night, completing their first 32 sets, making only two handling errors and scrambling in defence.
They rushed the Blues attack, made the hosts chase the game and only conceded points after being up 20-0 at halftime.
Queensland had entered every game in the series as underdogs, with most pundits expecting the Blues to wrap up the series in Perth before even reaching a decider.
“I’ll be sitting down when I’m 80 years of age, remembering 2025,” Munster said.
“You talk about the neville nobodies of 1995, no-one in the journo world, you guys sitting here, gave us a chance.
“It’ll be interesting to see what you’re going to say tomorrow. I’m really excited for it.”
AAP
