‘Absolutely stuffed': Maroons icon toppled as bleak Origin reality exposed

News.com.au

3 days ago

Remember when the Maroons were so daunting they'd reduced the Blues to Origin's Washington Generals?
When their side was packed with winners and Suncorp Stadium was such a bear pit that our boys would only leave the sheds to be winched to safety?
FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every game of every round in the 2025 NRL Telstra Premiership, LIVE with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer.
Yep, Origin was once so traumatic for New South Welshpeople that we'd peek through our fingers on one hand while sucking the thumb on the other, and that was just for the coin toss.
But in a long-awaited win for the good guys, these days are officially a thing of the past.
After two straight losses at the Queensland icon of Suncorp Stadium and barely a four-pointer to share between them, you can consider the Queensland Spirit fizzled, Fortress Suncorp a public library, and the Maroons absolutely stuffed.
With an ageing side and depressing lack of replacements, Queensland's Origin team is so shot to bits that the Blues don't even need to convert tries to beat them anymore.
Wednesday's sweat-free 18-6 win was as breezy as it gets for the southern state, a night so relaxing that even a worrywart like Andrew Johns spent most of the night gleefully fixated on balls.
And with coach Laurie Daley declaring in the aftermath 'I think we can get a lot better ', suddenly it's now NSW boasting the softest draw in rugby league.
With the Blues entrenched in a golden window with options coming out the wazoo - and a mulligan at Fortress Perth beckoning - all of Queensland's bunkum about being lowdown underdogs is finally about to come true.
Put simply, Billy Slater's options are so threadbare for a must-win game two that he has nothing to turn to but Maroon hyperbole or the bottle.
The Queensland coach has already hinted at retaining his game one squad, probably just to give this sack of doorknobs one more chance to save face after Wednesday night.
But what's the point?
Such was the walkover at Suncorp, he needs new blood in the forwards and Botox in the backs, and he can start with handing the reins to Tom Dearden in favour of Daly Cherry-Evans.
If Slater doesn't exhibit the intestinal fortitude required to axe a few mates, then Queensland Courage is nothing more than some kinda rum-based rocket fuel.
And if he does choose to walk his state off a cliff, Queensland might as well cut to the chase and pronounce Origin as dead, which is what they usually do anyway whenever their team's completion rate drops below 65%.
Yep, the Maroons need to pull some big kahuna moves because not even Suncorp can save them anymore.
We all recall that horrifically lean time when the Blues could only win north of the border if it was a dead rubber or a pandemic.
But after recording back-to-back triumphs for the first time since 1997/98, this graveyard for the Blues has become a virtual wellness retreat.
Once a venue where futile NSW teams would be haunted by the ghosts of Queensland past, now the only translucent shadows on the paddock at Lang Park are the scared holograms kicking the ball away from Spencer Leniu.
Even the baying locals have become inexplicably sober.
Once so crowding you could taste the halitosis, last night's Suncorp attendance was so silent at times you could hear the clip-clop of all the horse and carts on Milton Street.
In fact, the only stinging verbal attack that came from north of the border all week was from the Courier Mail and to be fair, the impact to Leniu's feelings from the paper's 'grub' headline was harder than any tackle he copped in the series opener.
Even the Maroons once-superhuman attack has become such a flaccid east-west dish for the Blues marauding defence that it can only score provided it's against 12 men.
It means Suncorp is still an Origin graveyard, but only for its hosts.
That's why the Blues should seriously consider transferring all their home games there forthwith.
After all, it's their new spiritual home, plus it's probably easier for fans to commute to and from Sydney than Accor Stadium.
- Dane Eldridge is a warped cynic yearning for the glory days of rugby league, a time when the sponges were magic and the Mondays were mad. He's never strapped on a boot in his life, and as such, should be taken with a grain of salt.