Opinion: Faster, tougher and more athletic, Origin now has it all bar thuggery | Malcolm Knox
In its 43rd year, State of Origin finally has nothing going for it other than the dazzling quality of the rugby league it can put on. Oversized muscularity has replaced oversized personalities.
When the Blue wall cracked it shattered, and in poured Queensland, winning a match in Sydney for the first time since 2017. Trounced on their own turf a year ago, Queensland have come down as far south as they would find comfortable in winter, and taken a lead in the three-match series. Speaking of coaches, Queensland’s Billy Slater and his Blues counterpart Brad Fittler did have the puff to comment on the game as it unfolded. TV commentators moonlighting as Origin coaches moonlighting as TV commentators, both were asked to revert to their day jobs and were too canny to say anything other than the bleeding obvious. It was curiously contemporary. Try that one on Wayne Bennett or Craig Bellamy, Channel Nine.
Cherry-Evans, incidentally, was clearly outplaying his challenger for the Australian halfback role, Nathan Cleary. Queensland’s strategic choice of selecting alternating dummy-halves in Ben Hunt and Harry Grant was also proving a winner in the lightning-paced game.
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