After 20 minutes, the result was a foregone conclusion – until it wasn’t

Bloody hell. Talk about the great escape!

After 20 minutes, the result of this match was so obvious there was little point watching the rest.

Queensland coach Billy Slater looked like the cat that swallowed the canary.

Blues coach Laurie Daley looked like the canary in the coalmine, just mauled by the cat.

And how could they not look like that?

For what different scenes they saw as they gazed out from their respective coaches’ boxes on Wednesday night.

Slater was soaking up the vision of a Queensland team that was ever and always operating at a level somewhere between imperious and imperial – but always singly kingly. They were born to rule, and rule they did. Everything they tried worked. Every sleight of hand and foot came up trumps. The green field was simply a flood of maroon jerseys flooding forward engulfing Blue traffic-cones.

And what did Laurie Daley see? He saw a team whose defence was round-heeled, whose attack was close to non-existent who were so bad they appeared to be either boozed or bamboozled. Seriously, were they drunk, or just confused? And has there ever been a more disastrous opening stanza from a team in State of Origin?

I repeat: 20 minutes in, the Blues were down 20-0 and the game was over – it was just a question of how bad the pantsing would be from there.

Emblematic of their dominance was the opening try, just a few minutes in.

Sam Walker had the ball on a string, and dribbled the ball through the Sydney drizzle with superbly judged weight. The ball skidded loose, every Blue jersey frozen in uncertainty. Into that back-field of Blues statues flew Robert Toia, the debutant Blues centre arriving exactly where history says its heroes must arrive – first.

The next try was even better. Queensland maestro Harry Grant hit the line just five metres from the Blues posts and did something so rare it doesn’t even have a name, so we’ll have to call it a “no-look reverse-flick off-load.” The ball went to Walker and then a rampaging Thomas Flegler, who seemed uncertain how the ball got into his hands but put it down anyway.

The Blues had barely finished arguing with themselves when Queensland decided it was time to put the Hammer down. The Maroons swept left, the ball was kicked through and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow found himself in enough space to make Neil Armstrong feel at home. He accelerated on to it, gathered the ball in, and put it down for a beauty! Twenty-nil!

The Queenslanders were not merely winning; they were conducting a masterclass in how it’s done. Beyond the tries, it was clear that the north-of-the-Tweed-ers were bigger, faster, harder, and more committed. In every set of six, they were making nigh on 50 per cent more metres than their opponents! Great Blues players had shockingly ordinary games. Brian To’o could barely take a pass. Stephen Crichton could barely take a trick.

Mercifully, one bit of Nathan Cleary magic saw Hudson Young score to make it 20-6 just before half-time, but it really was clear the game was over.

And then halfway through the second half, Maroons fullback Kalyn Ponga was sensationally sent off for a high shot. The game changed in an instant!

Six minutes later, Crichton came alive to put Ethan Strange over in the corner, and it was back to 20-10, with the conversion missed.

The Blues couldn’t, could they?

It seemed not, as they butchered no fewer than three – count ’em, THREE – tries.

But now Cleary takes the matter in hand, with the ball in the same, straightening, accelerating, and attacking the line. For an instant, there was hesitation among the Maroons, the smallest pause, the briefest uncertainty, and Cleary goes through! 20-16.

And you know the rest. For if you haven’t already seen it 10 times, not to worry – you’ll see it 50 times in the next few days.

After superb lead-up work by the entire team, James Tedesco miraculously gathers in a Cleary bomb to go over just to the left of the posts. Cleary converts his successful bomb with aplomb, to pull off the great escape in style 22-20.

I am not sure the best team won on the night.

But it was certainly the best escape in modern memory.