'It's very hard to do as you can see': Why NSW Blues are up against it in Origin III

NSW will head out onto Suncorp Stadium for Wednesday night’s State of Origin decider with everything against them.

With 52,000 Queensland fans cheering on the home team, the Blues face an almighty battle and record despite the absence of COVID-affected Maroons playmaker Cameron Munster.

NSW sides have won just two of 12 in series-deciding games in Queensland.

It’s why former Blues great Andrew Johns recently described winning game three in Brisbane as the hardest challenge any New South Welshman could face.

Johns achieved the feat in 2005 and the only other side to have done so was the 1994 Blues team.

NSW were visited by the heroes of those years this week and have been given constant reminders throughout this series by the fact Danny Buderus (2005) and Paul McGregor and Paul Sironen (1994) form part of coach Brad Fittler’s backroom staff.

“There was a lot of pressure,” Sironen told AAP.

“It’s very hard to do as you can see in the last sort of 25 to 30 years it hasn’t been done very often.

“We had the core of a very good side and we had won the previous two series under Phil Gould.

“I think we all knew the role we had to play.

“It’s a huge challenge for this group of men but I’ve got every confidence they can do it.”

The similarities between 1994 and 2022 are striking.

NSW had lost at home to open the series and they had to go to a neutral venue to get level in game two.

“We thought we had game one under control and as Queenslanders can do they scored late on,” Sironen said.

“It was dour in Melbourne and then we rained on Mal Meninga’s parade in Brisbane for his final Origin game.”

Fittler’s side broke the mould in 2021 when they clinched the series in the opening two games with all three contests being played in Queensland.

Their success included a 26-0 drubbing of the Maroons at Suncorp for game two – the first time Queensland had ever been held to nil north of the Tweed – from which Sironen said they should take confidence.

“Our record hasn’t been great prior to last year,” he added. “But it would be nice to go up to Lang Park and hold the shield up there.”