There is an old saying in rugby league: You have to earn the right to play footy.
It essentially means that to earn the right to play right and left, you have to do the tough stuff in the middle third of the ground.
It's a fundamental of rugby league that has shaped the game for decades, and while it's a game that is far less structured than it once was owing to the six-again additions and pace of play, it's still a large part of what makes the sport.
Nowhere is that truer than the State of Origin arena, with the best players on either side of the park.
Queensland, in taking out the second game of the series to keep the fight for the shield alive, where a decider in Brisbane will now be required, proved it.
They dominated the game in all areas on their way to a 20-point win, which frankly feels as if it could, or maybe even should, have been bigger, but they led from the front through the middle.
In fairness, the Blues' attack was widely panned after Game 1. The lack of creativity and ability against 13 players was fairly clear for all to see, although it has to be noted they made an enormous number of errors, which put a fork in what they were doing.
Most of their gap in Game 1 came from the opening 20 minutes as Cameron Murray sat on the bench. After that, in Sydney, the Blues were at the very least a competitive outfit.
That wasn't the case in Game 2, though, and it's because they spent far too much of the contest playing east to west.
Over and over again, the Blues went from sideline to sideline without actually trying to break through the middle, and without the numbers on the edges.
While they didn't throw enough at the Maroons to bother their edge defenders, those players, Selwyn Cobbo, Jojo Fifita, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Robert Toia still had to be equal to the task on defence, and they were.
But the stats are alarming for the Blues, and show a real discrepancy in the way the two teams approached the game.
While Queensland did have 55 per cent off the ball, the fact they ultimately had 21 more runs through their middle six than the Blues for over 200 more metres simply isn't good enough.
Queensland middle third
Thomas Flegler - 6 runs for 34 metres in 32 minutes
Tino Fa'asuamaleaui - 15 runs for 125 metres in 51 minutes
Reuben Cotter - 16 runs for 127 metres in 70 minutes
Max Plath - 14 runs for 115 metres in 58 minutes
Lindsay Collins - 7 runs for 78 metres in 29 minutes
Trent Loiero - 11 runs for 83 metres in 37 minutes
Total - 69 runs for 563 metres in 277 minutes
New South Wales middle third
Payne Haas - 9 runs for 69 metres in 54 minutes
Mitch Barnett - 6 runs for 53 metres in 25 minutes
Isaah Yeo - 12 runs for 84 metres in 71 minutes
Cameron Murray - 11 runs for 74 metres in 43 minutes
Victor Radley - 6 runs for 46 metres in 29 minutes
Addin Fonua-Blake - 4 runs for 30 metres in 9 minutes
Total - 48 runs for 356 metres in 231 minutes
Queensland's middles played more minutes, got through more downhill running, and were somehow also generally fresher.
Again, the Maroons had more of the ball, but the fact that Harry Grant only made 30 tackles in 77 minutes compared to Reece Robson's 45 in 80 minutes is something of an indictment against the way the Blues attacked the game.
Queensland dominated all the key stats through the middle.
Tackle efficiency, metres per run, metres per set, and obviously total metres, and it was a big part of the reason they were able to find as much space as they were on the edges, and time without pressure for their creative sparks through the middle.
Despite being rattled in the first half with a pair of head injury assessments forcing Fa'asuamaleaui and five-eighth Cameron Munster from the field for periods of 15 minutes apiece, they still found a way to stick to the game plan, knew how to beat the Blues and executed.
Some of what the Blues did, granted, was down to the way Queensland defended, rushing the first and second receivers out of the marker and having excellent line speed, which ultimately cramped the Blues for room and forced them to go to either side of the park.
There is always a causation for dramatic changes in attacking strategy, but this wasn't just the way Queensland defended.
The Blues went into the game thinking they'd be able to just go around Queensland as they pleased, as they did in the final 20 minutes of Game 1.
But that, of course, was against 12 men.
Not 13.
It showed in the end, with the Blues attack out of ideas, and often, having very little in the way of momentum.
What is maybe more concerning is the reason for the tactic.
Without knowing what's happening in the inner sanctum, you can only assume it has to do with the selection.
Payne Haas had his worst game as a Blue, maybe ever at any level, to be honest, with the game's best prop running for less than 70 metres.
He was just coming off an injury, though and might have been underdone. As much as Mitch Barnett is a few more weeks down the road now, he looked underdone in Game 1 and not much better in Game 2.
Isaah Yeo is a prop at Origin level but doesn't play as one, while the Blues also only had one prop on the bench in Addin Fonua-Blake, who played just a handful of minutes before being pulled back off the field as the Blues went down to 12 men following that ordinary late shot from Kotoni Staggs.
Victor Radley's discipline was poor, and there was clearly no clear plan to use the middle as they should have.
Cameron Murray, who was the best of the Blues middles, simply must start in the decider, and if the men from south of the Tweed are going to do anything at all, then Haas needs to be at his best.
The Blues, though, need a game plan that recognises that and aims to compete with the Maroons through the middle.
If they don't, you might as well write off the series now.
