By Jon Healy, ABC
Maroons captain Cameron Munster and Josh Papalii, left, hold up the shield after victory in the State of Origin game three match between the Queensland Maroons and the New South Wales Blues at Accor Stadium in Sydney, on July 9, 2025. Photo: AAP / Photosport
Analysis: It was the sort of game that makes you believe all the State of Origin hyperbole might actually be true.
What other reason could there possibly be for what we saw on Wednesday night?
Massive underdogs? Check. Enemy territory? Yep. Coming off a series-opening loss? Uh-huh. An inspirational veteran back for one last ride? Of course.
Since 2018, the Blues have had the better side on paper. After 2024, they were supposed to be done relying on that.
But then the 2025 decider happened. Queensland stormed NSW's home and it wasn't close.
Not only did the Maroons win the decider, they were near enough to flawless in the 24-12 victory.
Seventeen-game NSW veteran Luke Lewis said on ABC Sport the Maroons "played a proper Origin game".
Legendary Blues coach Phil Gould went further on Channel Nine, describing it as "perfect Origin football".
After the first two games saw both teams below par and fumbling their way through 160 minutes of football in one way or another, Queensland completed every set until the 69th minute in game three.
By that point, the team was already leading 20-6 and the game was effectively done.
Unlike Perth, this wasn't a situation where the Maroons had stumbled into a big lead and were desperately trying to hang on. They were so much better from the jump that the 80,000 fans were stunned into an eerie silence, the likes of which you never hear in an Origin game, especially not a decider where nerves are fried as the tether between fandom and fanaticism is frayed into dust.
Led by captain Cameron Munster in the most inspirational of his myriad immense Origin performances, the Maroons finally turned up in game three.
Maroons coach Billy Slater and captain Cameron Munster share an emotional moment after the final whistle. Munster's father died earlier this week. Photo: AAP / Photosport
Coach Billy Slater picked his most well-rounded team of the series and every single member of them played out of their skin.
The poster boy for Slater's triumph was, of course, Tom Dearden.
Axing captain Daly Cherry-Evans after the series opener was one of the biggest calls we've seen in recent memory but it was utterly vindicated as Dearden won player of the match and series in an almighty game.
The Maroons Tom Dearden was instrumental in the victory. Photo: AAP / www.photosport.nz
Every rein Slater and the Maroons pulled continually turned the game in their favour, and it started early when bolter debutant Gehamat Shibasaki brushed Zac Lomax to set up the first try of the night.
We'd seen Queensland strike first and almost get run down three weeks earlier, but this time the Maroons made their own luck.
Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow played fullback the way Queenslanders saw it in their dreams. Valentine Holmes flattened Angus Crichton in the opening exchanges and backed it up with ball in hand. Rookie Rob Toia came up with try-savers and skinned Latrell Mitchell time and time again.
Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow played fullback the way Queenslanders saw it in their dreams. Photo: AAP / Photosport
Harry Grant, Reuben Cotter, Kurt Capewell, Trent Loiero … up and down the team list, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who's played a better Origin game.
Xavier Coates's shift back to the left wing was supposed to give us an aerial contest with Zac Lomax that would put to shame any dogfights since the days of the Red Baron.
Instead, Lomax mostly went roaming on the other side of the field and never managed a clean run at a high ball.
The likelihood of it all coming together the way it did was infinitesimally small. But when the team enveloped Munster in a collective bear hug as the full-time siren sounded, it became clear how it had happened.
Between their skipper's grief and the return of Josh Papali'i, this side had more reason to step up than perhaps any other before them.
Munster called Papali'i up on stage to help him lift the shield. Cameron Smith did the same thing with Petero Civoniceva, Justin Hodges and Johnathan Thurston.
This is a team constantly aware of its place in the grand scheme of things and the narrative around it.
Slater never trots out the line that "we don't read that stuff", and Munster himself said he was looking forward to seeing some members of the media eat crow on Thursday morning.
Munster, the hero for "the worst-ever Queensland team" in 2020, equated this year's side with the 1995 "Neville Nobodies" side that somehow swept NSW 3-0 without the stars lost to the Super League.
From Mal, to Lockyer, to Thurston, to Smith, to Cherry-Evans, to Munster - that connection to history spurred on the eight-straight dynasty and it inspired this year's team.
From the greats to the "nobodies", everybody needs a little push sometimes.
-ABC
