Sub-par Maroons thrashed by Freddie's Blues
by
Wednesday July 07, 2004

Queensland have suffered their second worst Origin defeat at Telstra Stadium as they surrendered the 2004 series with a 36-14 capitulation to New South Wales.  Brad Fittler, playing his 31st and final Origin game scored the last Blues try after a chargedown on opposite number Darren Lockyer to complete the fairytale.

The Maroons led 8-6 going into half time but a terrible blunder by rookie centre Willie Tonga put the Blues on the attack and shortly after man of the match Trent Barrett sliced through to put New South Wales back in front.

Shaun Timmins then sent Mark Gasnier over for his second try with a neat cut out pass after Shane Webcke was penalised for a flop shortly after the kick off to give New South Wales an 18-8 half time lead.

The Queensland mistakes came with monotonous regularity throughout the early stages of the second half but it took 15 minutes for the Blues to take advantage, winger Luke Rooney going over despite the tackle of Rhys Wesser.  Just moments earlier Wesser was denied a try after he was put in touch by Anthony Minichiello in similar circumstances.

Not long after Minichiello was over himself to take a 28-8 lead and stamp out any remote hopes of a Queensland fightback.

Matt Cooper looked certain to score shortly after but lost the ball as he went to put it down. Video referee Sean Hampstead ruled that Queensland interchange forward Corey Parker raked the ball out. Craig Fitzgibbon landed the penalty goal for a 30-8 lead.

Fittler then charged down a Lockyer chip kick 30 metres out and regathered to score untouched amid typically wild attention grabbing celebrations from coach Phil Gould. 

Queensland earnt a little bit of credibility with a try to Matt Bowen after a superb break from Billy Slater after a kick return. Moments later halfback Scott Prince dummied one way and put former Cowboys teammate Bowen into space close to the line to score under the posts.

New South Wales celebrated their commanding win which sealed captain Danny Buderus' first series win as captain. But all the attention was lauded towards Fittler and Gould.  Fittler came out of Origin retirement for game 2 amid a serious injury toll in his five-eighth position, and despite some of those candidates returning to fitness, Fittler elected to try and gain revenge after the second game loss.

Despite the ease with which New South Wales won the decider, the series was close. The dull slugfest of Origin one could have easily gone Queensland's way had hooker Cameron Smith, who landed two pressure goals from out wide in the first half, had kicked just one of his similar attempts in the opening game. However, with the boring nature of that opening game and the one-sidedness of the third, the series will go down as one of the less impressive in the past decade, perhaps only surpassed by the whitewashes in 1996 and 2000.

The Blues were strong across the park, with halfback Barrett, Fittler, Willie Mason and Minichiello the standouts. The Maroons were let down by uncharacteristically poor performances from skipper Darren Lockyer and prop Shane Webcke. Smith, Prince, Dane Carlaw and Petero Civoniceva were the standouts for Queensland, while Willie Tonga and Billy Slater - stars of the second game win - had moments of brilliance mixed with some elementary errors.

Matt Sing was the most serious injury concern suffering a suspected broken jaw after an unlucky head clash with Fittler. Queensland backrower Mick Crocker suffered a shoulder injury while centre Brent Tate and Lockyer also suffered late in the game from some heavy treatment from the Blues defence.

From a Broncos perspective, the poor form of Lockyer and Tate is a concern, while they would lament the inability of Carlaw to produce the same style of performance for Brisbane as he has managed for Queensland this season.

Earlier it was very much an even contest.  The Blues had the early run after a Slater mistake on just the second set of six, in which he lost the ball in what looked a spear tackle which went unpunished. Queensland repelled them on that occasion and soon after forced a mistake of their own with a towering Lockyer bomb.

A penalty followed but Lockyer elected to take the shot at goal despite having the Blues defence in tatters.

Moments later Slater made another mistake and debutant Mark Gasnier capitalised on Queensland's disjointed defence to score out wide.  Fitzgibbon converted for a 6-2 lead.

Queensland were on the attack again soon after and with space out wide, Tate kicked ahead for Sing who was winning the race for the ball from Minichiello. Minichiello realised he was beaten and tackled Sing without the ball.

Referee Paul Simpkins awarded a penalty to Queensland, however Minichiello was lucky not to be sin binned. This time Queensland took the tap and Tonga sent Slater over for a try to make up for his early blunders.

Smith's sideline conversion gave Queensland an 8-6 lead.