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Opinion
Cameron Munster’s performance in the State of Origin series opener had all the hallmarks of one of Wally Lewis’ top-shelf displays in the Queensland No.6 jersey.
Wally was just a natural footballer who had deceptive strength and speed and even though he wasn’t the fastest across the ground, he was the fastest between the ears.
That’s how Munster played in game one against the Blues. He’s a bit of a free spirit, like Wally was, but there’s no fanfare about him when he’s on the field, he’s just doing whatever the team needs to get the job done.
And we saw that with the way he ran the ball, passed wide when needed and came up with a pair of strips to put NSW on the back foot.
Munster has been one of the form players in the NRL this season and there are not too many players in that class who can do what he did in game one.
He’s already one of the great five-eighths who have played for Queensland and he’s only midway through his career.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Daly Cherry-Evans worked well alongside him, Kalyn Ponga was back to his best at fullback and Harry Grant made a world of difference when he came on so it’s fair to say the Queensland spine got the better of the Blues.
The difference between game one last year when Queensland were flogged 50-6 in Townsville and what we saw at Accor Stadium couldn’t be any greater.
A lot of the credit for that should go to Billy Slater.
It reminds me a fair bit of when Mal Meninga took over in 2006 and he blooded a few new guys who were untested at Origin level and they became long-term Maroons representatives.
Reuben Cotter had a wow of a game to play the full 80 minutes at lock, Pat Carrigan made some great hits when he came off the bench, Selwyn Cobbo had a few classy runs down the wing and the other debutant, Jeremiah Nanai, didn’t get as much time as he would have liked after that ankle injury but he showed great courage to come back on.
Billy trusted these guys and for the ones he brought back from last year, it was clear that they had spirit back in the side again.
Their scrambling defence, kick-chase, all the effort areas were outstanding.
I lost count of the amount of tries they snuffed out. I think Billy with his background as a fullback would have drummed that into his players. No matter what on the last play keep moving, get back behind the ball.
Valentine Holmes was exceptional at the back, especially considering he had to switch from centre to wing mid-game and that dive to collect the loose ball when it was toed ahead was a tremendous effort to shut things down.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Game ones can be tough for both teams to get going and I think NSW were a bit too conservative when they had good-ball sets, particularly in the first 30 minutes.
They had a couple of chances and decisions in the first half that didn’t go their way. Their back five made some solid contributions to get them down the attacking end but they didn’t capitalise.
And they were desperately unlucky not to get over the line a couple of times towards the end but Queensland held firm.
I don’t think NSW will be too worried or need to make drastic changes going into game two in Perth in a few weeks but they will need to get a bit more cohesion in their attack to turn the series around.
Michael Hagan is a former dual-premiership winning first grade player and current assistant coach of Australia's Kangaroos team. Hagan played 183 games for Canterbury and Newcastle and represented Queensland five times. He transitioned into a successful coach and took the Knights to a premiership in his first year in charge back in 2001. He went onto coach 205 NRL games and six times for Queensland in Origin.