May we enter a new era of State Of Origin. Last night's rather phenomenal game of rugby league put on display a New South Wales side who are now on par with Queensland, a group united with the talent and skill to match. Unfortunately for the Blues, they game up against a Queensland side who have found a nice mix of the game's best players and some refreshing young blood. Only the game's best players could have taught their opponents and the audience the rugby league 101 lesson of how to grind out a victory, and done so perfectly.

When Queensland ran out for the second half, they had experienced periods of attack and great territory but found themselves behind thanks to a few moments of class from NSW. Despite being behind on the scoreboard, QLD made their intentions very, very clear and NSW had no real answer. Kick it long, chase hard and make every tackle hurt. 

They turned the screws with patience, they didn't try bite off more than they could chew and just tried to build so much pressure that something had to give. There was a moment when Phil Gould said exactly that and I, like many I presume, thought that it had to be the defence of NSW but NSW made a half break and I wondered whether it just wasn't QLD's day. But they took opportunities presented to them by NSW to get down their end and kicked immaculately, and NSW's defence which had been exceptional to that point, let in a try. 

Two points, would you have taken the kick at goal? Some thought that QLD were conceding that NSW's defence was too good, but think of the worst case situation here; Jonathan Thurston misses and NSW get the ball around their try line. Every Maroon chased that kick, Thurston missed and the grind went on. 

You really have to admire a team who are so in tune with each other, their style, their culture, their skill and their execution as much as QLD. No one second guessed what was happening, no one thought that the game was theirs for the taking, they just knew what it would take to win. 

Last year's games were brutal, immensely physical but played in the trenches. Game one gave us some of the biggest collisions I've seen consistently but we also saw plenty of attacking footy, plenty of niggle but lots of moments to get your bum slightly off your chair. It was something else. The small blokes were putting themselves into everything and then you had moments like late in the game when NSW had a drop out and Josh McGuire got a head of steam up only to be met with Trent Merrin, metres ahead of any other NSW defender ready to give him a whack. It's glorious. 

Here's the thoughts of ya boy

• Billy Slater is one hell of a player. In my eyes he was the best player on the field, he constantly asked questions with the ball in hand, chased kicks like a lunatic but he was also extremely tough. NSW fans will be hating Slater, but he was out to prove a point and he did so emphatically.
• David Klemmer has a long future in a Blues jersey.  
• Josh McGuire also has a long future in a Maroons jersey.
• State Of Origin consistently wins the award for 'Worst Pre-game Entertainment'. Just fucking stop all that bullshit. 
• Paul Gallen has weirdly question why Trent Merrin didn't get more minutes. Weird because he should really shut up, but he's right. Merrin was great when he came on in the second half, maybe Laurie Daley's plan was for Merrin to play the last portion of the game all along which is fair enough. But Josh Jackson was largely absent in his debut.
• Mathew Scott might have a case for those, like myself who think that Jesse Bromwich is the best prop in the game. Scott's performance was immense, his cannonball body charging at the bigger forwards of NSW. He ran for 140 metres, off 14 carries which gave him the most metres per carry of any forward except Josh McGuire.
• Nate Myles and Corey Parker also defied the odds, making good metres with every carry especially late in the game when they both came back on the field.
• The rules are different in Origin and it was good to see the refs continue to allow slightly dirty things go down, that's the product after all. 
• Greg Inglis was quiet, or more kept quiet by NSW. The Blues did a great job of getting up on him quickly and getting numerous bodies in the tackle. Then when it was one on one, Josh Morris got a shirt grab despite a big fend from Inglis, top defence.
• Josh Dugan was that guy, if only NSW had a few more of those guys. They didn't have much 'good' ball which restricted their backline, but they just looked like they were lacking another game breaker.
• Andrew Fifita can be that type of game breaker, offloads, broken tackles and metres helps. 
• Parramatta fans should get super excited with Beau Scott heading to the Eels next year. Scott and Will Hopoate have a great connection on the right edge despite Morris in the centres. With Hopoate playing at centre for the Eels, they'll not only have a nice connection on attack but their defence will be tough as nails.
• Dugan shouldn't have got the ball for that field goal. Maybe it was planned to go to him, but he didn't look like he expected it. His ability though, almost saved the day.
• The tackle on Robbie Farah was fine.
• NSW did look like they needed someone quick and nimble around the ruck and while Farah will be doing everything he can to play game two, NSW could benefit from having a x-factor hooker come off the bench. 
• That 14 option off the bench for QLD was Michael Morgan and he showed that he's all good at this level. It might be his only game of the series, but he showed that he can handle all the brutality of the middle.
• NSW's halves weren't bad, in fact they were quite good to be honest. Sure, they should have organised their shot at one point much better but they performed well in all other departments. I harp back to that little bit of x-factor though and they are both super solid halves, they set things up for other blokes and if they had a few more weapons, I think QLD would be very cautious.
• The outside backs for QLD were the difference. Their forwards did a great job of making metres and trying to own the middle, but they could do that because their backs made big metres early on in their sets. Big metres on tough carries deep in their own territory.
• Justin Hodges is hugely responsible for that, probably the hardest man to tackle in league. You would have thought that NSW's cheat sheet would have said something about stopping Hodges when he gets into dummy half and I'm sure it did, but stopping him is a different task.
• The other lad who was great was Will Chambers, holy shit. His 22 carries were the most of anyone and his 223 metres were also the most but the way he ran the footy was inspiring. Regardless of who was in front of him, he charged.
• Darius Boyd looked a step off the pace. He was good, made plenty of metres and was heavily involved but he was found wanting for the Morris try and then it looked like he wasn't flat enough for the pass from Inglis in the corner.
• Compare that to NSW's outside backs, with only Dugan making over 100 metres. 
• The giraffe, Daniel Tupou gets beat up on those hit ups early in the set.
• Cameron Smith, I started with Billy Slater and I'll finish with Smith. It felt like he was there defensively for every tackle and his kicking out of dummy half was in-part responsible for NSW coming out of their own end all second half.