How often do we see it? NSW well on top in an Origin contest they're expected to win with relative ease, only to see unheralded Queenslanders turn into Immortals to run them down?
Last night went exactly how everyone south of the Tweed had feared.
Every player who puts on the Maroon jumper turns into superman, whilst the Dally M medal winner turned into a park footballer, the superstar halfback forgot how to play football and the hitman prop ran for under 65 metres.
With all due respect to those representing the Sunshine State last night, the gulf in class was there for all to see. On paper, it was over before it started. NSW played as such.
As we've seen time and time again, the game is not played on paper, and QLD under the supervision of the master coach himself, Wayne Bennett, came out and absolutely bathed the cocky and underperforming Blues.
With the benefit of that magnificent thing known as hindsight, we look at where it all went wrong for the supposed 'mighty' Blues.
Players picked out of position
This was the big issue going in and it turned out as a literal match defining error on behalf of Blues' coach Brad Fittler.
Fittler opted to play Jack Wighton and Clint Gutherson in the centres, overlooking the in form Stephen Crichton and the more than capable Zac Lomax.
Wighton had a brilliant 2019 series out wide and a fullback starred at centre last year so you can't blame Fittler for going back to what worked previously, but with all due respect to 'King Gutho', he's no Tommy Turbo.
Gutherson was easily outplayed by a makeshift centre option in Kurt Capewell, while Jack Wighton was arguably the least influential player on the field for the Blues.
Dane Gagai, a known weapon at representative level, absolutely tore Wighton to shreds on his edge. He snapped the Canberra star's ankles in setting up that try for young Xavier Coates.
I have no issue with Wighton being picked, he just had an off game, but when the sides were named I was shocked Crichton was overlooked and that error was super costly.
I'd say we have seen the last of Gutherson for the 2020 Origin series, with a full-time centre surely coming in for Origin One. We'll look at this more during the week.
The other big head scratcher came in the form of moving the game's best winger in Josh Addo Carr out of position. Yes, he did score a double and was amongst the Blues best, but you pick your best player in their best position.
Tupou put in an admirable shift, and made big metres, but for the life of me I can't understand why you'd blunt the weapon that is the 'Foxx' in any way, shape or form.
Not sure if him switching sides would have made much difference truthfully, but if there's one player you do not move, it's the game's premier winger.
Horrible use of the bench
The injury to Cameron Murray did not help at all here, nor did the HIA to Boyd Cordner, but Fittler's use of the bench last night was a horror show.
Replacing a wide running second-rower with a lock, whilst Angus Crichton sat on the sidelines was a mystery. Surely Fittler has learned from Bennett's earlier errors in that Murray is an elite middle man and should be used as such.
Payne Haas played for 25 minutes, despite the fact he made more metres than starting prop Junior Paulo in 17 less minutes of game time.
Then there was the use of Cody Walker. For the life of me I still don't understand the need for Walker considering you had Wighton in the centres and even Gutherson if required.
Walker tried hard in his 19 minutes but it looked like a Hail Mary without any real direction.
Surely a fourth forward, perhaps McInnes or even Yeo would have provided much more go forward in a pack that battled to keep up with their QLD counterparts?
I'm placing no blame on Walker here, he was thrown into the game, again out of position, but with three halves there was no direction. Kind of hard to believe that with three halves, plus Wighton, there was still hardly any attack outside of 'get it to the fast winger'.
The entire second half
10-0 up against a side where two, possibly three players make your run on side and you get mowed down. Unforgivable.
Again, no disrespect to the QLD'ers who played well beyond themselves, however a side that inexperienced should never have been in the game.
I don't know what Fittler's halftime speech was but I very much doubt it was "go out there and plod along".
It's hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong in that second half but when the chips were down, no one stood up. Considering the form halfback of the season, the form player of the competition, the best hooker in the game and the best player in the game in Tedesco, that's dire.
If the Blues aren't absolutely filthy this morning, and Fittler considering changes, then QLD will ride this momentum to a 2-0 lead in Sydney next Wednesday.
The Blues have the players and coach to turn this around but truthfully last night made for pretty awful viewing for those of us wearing Blue.
Great win Queensland!
