Here they go again. Queensland now have two in a row and NSW are still asking the same questions they did more than a decade ago.
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Where to now?
Who goes? Who stays?
The Maroons notched up series victory No.10 in the past 11 years with a 26-16 victory at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday night, ending Paul Gallen's farewell tour with the all too familiar agonising sense of disappointment.
Inspired by a Dane Gagai hat-trick, the Maroons withstood repeated comeback attempts from NSW to ensure they'll head to Sydney for a chance to clinch a series clean sweep in enemy territory on July 13.
In front of a sell out crowd of 52,293 at Suncorp Stadium, the Maroons compounded the heartache of last year's annihilation on the very same patch of turf.
Only six survived the nightmare that was the 52-6 shellacking of last year's series decider.
Laurie Daley wielded the axe, took a leap of faith in six baby-faced Blues and held his breath in hope.
Jack Bird, who showed why he will play plenty of Origin games, was given a baptism of fire when asked to fill in at halfback in the second half when Adam Reynolds succumbed to a shoulder injury.
Fellow debutant Tyson Frizell was one of NSW's best, but good wasn't good enough for NSW.
Queenslander's aren't one to pass up an opportunity when it comes to tapping a source of motivation.
So it came as no surprise to the Blues when Corey Parker chose to announce his retirement just two days out from the big dance.
'This is for Corey', they would have vowed.
Just as they had when they did it for Locky, when they did it for Artie and when they did it for Wally.
All the talk leading in was where NSW's points would come from.
In the 10 games under Daley leading into the match, the Blues had only scored 102 points.
To put that into perspective, the struggling Newcastle Knights scored 102 points in their first 10 games of the season.
Granted, club football is a far inferior standard to Origin, but if the Blues were an NRL team they would hold the equal worst attacking record in 10 games in the past 15 years.
They responded with a far more expansive game of football. Kicking early, offloading, shifting the ball through the hands on the last - they ticked all the right boxes.
But despite their best efforts, Queensland - as they so often do - found an answer to everything NSW threw at them.
The opening stages of the contest was reminiscent of a rugby union match, with both teams trading penalty goals to take the score to 4-4 after 20 minutes.
As they did in game one, NSW had the better of the opportunities however against the run of play Queensland turned defence into attack, with Dane Gagai intercepting a loose offload from Michael Jennings to outrun a determined Tyson Frizell in an 80 metre dash for the first try of the night.
Trailing 10-4 at half time, the Blues didn't do themselves any favours by giving away cheap penalties and coughing up the pill inside their own half.
A mistake from Andrew Fifita paved the way for Darius Boyd to weave his magic and set up Gagai for his second try of the night and a 16-4 lead in the 48th minute.
Queensland's decision to turn down a penalty goal that would have put them beyond two converted tries ahead proved costly, with Reynolds offloading to gift debutant Tyson Frizell his first Origin try to reduce the deficit to six.
But a Thurston grubber ended NSW's hopes of a comeback, with Gagai diving on the loose ball to grab try No.3.
The Newcastle back then let the Blues back into the game when his bat-back found Maloney, who ran the length of the field to make it a four point game with 12 minutes remaining.
The Blues looked to have levelled only for the fingertips of Jennings denying Frizell of his second try of the night, only for Corey Oates to grab the match winner at the other end of the field.
