As the last NSW captain to win a series in 2005, Club legend Danny Buderus shares his insights on tonight's 100th Origin clash against Queensland at Suncorp Stadium.
By Danny Buderus
I never thought Queensland's dominance would last eight years when I walked off the Olympic Stadium for the last time in Game 3 of the 2008 series.
In saying that though, I understood that Maroons team was going to evolve into a special team because they had a lot of once-in-a-generation players.
I remember in that last game we held them in the middle and we did everything right, but then they’d just put in a pinpoint kick out to someone like Israel Folau and he would climb high and score.
They just had a knack of finding these players who could do special things and they’ve still got them in their team today.
And who is to say that they're not going to get better as well.
That team has just taken the level of Origin to a whole new stratosphere.
NSW are not that far away though and we’ve got game breakers in our team.
Rookie halves:
We’ve got a new halves combination that’s untried in Trent Hodkinson and Josh Reynolds, but that might be a good thing.
They don’t have any baggage of what’s gone on beforehand.
No doubt they know the statistics, but they might get out there and play with a free spirit.
I know Reynolds does that and he is always coming at you.
Then you’ve got Hodkinson with his kicking game. He is obviously in there for the game plan that Laurie Daley is trying to implement.
They’ll kick into the corners with Brett Morris and Daniel Tupou and they're both good targets.
How do you win at Suncorp?
I think the biggest thing up there is the last bits of both halves.
Obviously you’ve got to start well, but it’s that last little bit going into halftime and then the backend as well.
You’ve also got to have a calmness about you.
You can’t keep the crowd out, because it’s just a cauldron-like atmosphere.
But it’s those last little bits where you need to stay calm and just win all those little battles.
There are over 300 of them in a game and they are all Origin battles as well, so it's tough.
But that’s why everyone loves Origin and it is the game's showpiece.
