State of Origin III as it happened: Queensland perfection seals series boilover

Well, that’s enough. For now anyway. Time for a nap. And then we’ll be back to work out exactly what the hell just happened. How NSW comprehensively lost a series they really shouldn’t have.

Fair play to Queensland, deserving game three winners and the better side across the series - Billy Slater, Cameron Munster, Tom Dearden and co simply outwitted and outplayed their more fancied rivals.

For the Blues, this won’t be pretty. Phil Gould might have summed it up best already though - they were out-Origined. There is plenty of analysis and news coming from the ground as we speak.

But like we said, right now, time for a nap. A long one. Thank you all, from a sky blue perspective, that was a truly horrible experience.

Laurie Daley’s second coaching stint in the State of Origin arena has gone much like the first.

The only difference is that this time, at least on paper, he was in charge of the superior roster. There is no shame in losing to a team containing Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk. But one with Gehamat Shibasaki?

The truth is NSW were never in it in Wednesday night’s series decider. Playing on their home ground, a dry track was expected to accentuate their threats. But it yielded no advantage. The only time the locals had anything to cheer about in the entire first half, one in which Queensland completed all 21 of their sets, was when Ashley Klein awarded them a penalty.

This may not have been a flawless Origin performance, but it is as good as it gets. It wasn’t until the 69th minute that the Maroons first dropped the Steeden. Queensland, beautiful one game, almost perfect the next.

Read the full match report here.

Tom Dearden is crowned this year’s Wally Lewis Medallist - slips an f-bomb into his speech, accidentally of course.

Who’d have thought that’s how things would’ve panned out when Billy Slater made the massive call to replace his skipper and incumbent No.7 Daly Cherry-Evans with the series on the line.