There are many folks north of the border who would argue that Queensland's hopes of extending their interstate reign went down the tube the moment Cooper Cronk broke his arm last year.
The Melbourne halfback was gone inside the first 10 minutes of Origin I in Brisbane, only returning for the dead rubber in game three as the Maroons romped home. On Wednesday night, back in the Queensland No.7 for a series opener, he showed NSW how to win a game.
Cronk is often overlooked when the eye is run over Mal Meninga's star-studded side. In fairness, it's not easy to stand out when Greg Inglis, Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston and Billy Slater –all future Immortal candidates — are also in the team photo.
Yet he once again showcased his value on Wednesday night with a standout performance capped off by a match-winning field goal. The one-pointer was the one that clinched it for Meninga's men but Cronk had done plenty of damage by then. He scored the opening try of the night, racing past Josh Dugan and Michael Jennings from a quick Sam Thaiday play-the-ball.
Later, he would help lay on a try for Melbourne teammate Will Chambers that brought the Maroons level. Then, at the death, while the Blues botched their attempts at goal, the 31-year-old made no mistake. "We probably should have gone for the field goal earlier when Johno went for the two," Cronk said, pointing to the decision to let Johnathan Thurston take a penalty goal shot from 45 metres out a few minutes earlier.
"We thought, well it's 10-10, and the boys are going to be going for a field goal. He didn't make it but we backed ourselves and defended the error and got out of it with that field goal."
It was the second time in three years Cronk had claimed an Origin win with a field goal after his series-clinching one-pointer in Origin III at Suncorp Stadium in 2012.
Had the Maroons not won, they may have felt hard done by after a try awarded to Slater inside the first 10 minutes was overtuned by the video officials, who ruled the Maroons fullback had pushed Blues halfback Trent Hodkinson in the back.
Queensland prevailed despite Inglis having been largely silenced, particularly by opposite number Josh Morris. Last year he defied a bung knee to pull off a tackle on Inglis that went down as one of the defining moments of NSW's return to Origin glory. Morris again nullified the threat of Queensland's superstar left centre — and landed a try at ANZ Stadium for the highlight reels.
