Last night Queensland beat a courageous New South Wales side 34-24 up at Suncorp Stadium. Queensland were the better team on the night and thoroughly deserved to be taking home the shield for another year, their sixth in a row.

What I’ve learnt throughout my time watching Origin, is that over time the series ebbs and flows, one team may be dominant for long periods but it doesn’t tend to last, this usually coincides with a dominant player from the winning state hanging up the boots and the team going into somewhat of a rebuilding phase.

NSW have been going through this phase since Joey Johns retired from rep footy in 2005, there is no coincidence that this is where Queensland started their run of six straight series victories. 2006 is the year that Darren Lockyer stepped up and for 6 years now he has been leading Queensland around the park, he will be remembered as a true legend of our game.

Lockyer has now retired from rep footy, his final Origin game clinching a series win for Queensland and he goes out a winner, something many other legends from the past have failed to do.

But what does this mean for State of Origin? Well, if history is anything to go by, Queensland will struggle to replace such a quality, experienced player and they will be brought back down to earth next year. They may have Cooper Cronk to play halfback with Thurston moving to 5/8 but they will be hard pressed emulating anything that Lockyer has produced over the last 6 years.

New South Wales have just ushered in a new breed, for once they stuck solid with a bunch of players and didn’t chop and change like they normally do each series. Injury forced Ricky Stuart’s hand on a number of occasions but he brought some of those players back into the squad for game 3, to give them a fighting shot at reclaiming their place, and to let them know they weren’t forgotten.

Usually at this point the NSW media outlets would be calling for the coaches head, blaming the players for not showing enough character and slating the referees for a number of bias calls to the Maroons.

This series has showed that Ricky Stuart is the man for the job. He has instilled some pride back into the NSW jumper, something that Craig Bellamy and his staff could not do. He has revived State of Origin to a point where I believe NSW are on the verge of something special. A group of players playing together each year is what is required to knock Queensland off their perch, that’s what they did to us 6 years ago and look how it has turned out.

I could not be prouder of our team to be honest, the courage, pride and commitment they showed over the three games, up against a more experienced and skillful Queensland side, makes me believe that these are the players to lead our state forward for the next 5 years at least.

Every player tried their heart out and in the end they were undone by a ruthless Queensland side that had amassed 70% possession and a 24-0 scoreline after 30 mins. That was gameover right there, but they didn’t give up. They scored two quick tries right on the stroke of halftime to give themselves a glimmer of hope.

The first 20 minutes of the second half Queensland were there for the taking but all of that defence in the first half took it’s toll on the Blues and they couldn’t apply any pressure to the Maroons defence.

New South Wales played 60 minutes of the match with 1 less player, with Ennis leaving the field coughing up blood halfway through the first half, it’s no coincidence that in the next 10 minutes Queensland ran in three tries as the Blues legs just couldn’t withstand the onslaught.

The Blues showed character in the final 10 minutes of the game, down 34-10 and they didn’t give up, scoring the last 2 tries to get a bit of respectability back in the scoreline. But what it showed most is that the Blues have learned something from this series, and that is a never say die attitude that has normally been attributed to the Maroons. It’s usually the Maroons that score the last try as they go for the full 80 minutes no matter what the scoreline, NSW showed that “passion” last night.

New South Wales can hold their head up high, for the first time in 5 years they have given us hope that we can once again become the dominant team in Origin. We need to stick by these players going forward as they are only going to get better with more experience.

Congratulations to Queensland on another series win, and farewell to Darren Lockyer, you will be remembered as one of the greats of our game.

To those Queenslanders out there who will no doubt spend all day today gloating, just remember what it felt like 6 years ago when you were whinging that Origin was dead, New South Wales were too good and Mal Meninga is a poor choice for a coach, better suited to politics. Here in NSW, we aren’t giving up on Origin, in fact, the battle has just begun!