What was interesting about the Blues’ rare series win back in 2014 was that there was very little talk amongst Queenslanders in the aftermath about how NSW had finally caught up in the Origin “get it” stakes. And fair enough, it was their rivals’ first series win in nine years; baby steps to respectability and all of that. They acknowledged the Blues’ long-awaited series victory, but those southerners still weren’t like them. Not by a long shot. Because they still didn’t get Origin.

Your writer had wondered what this “get it” thing meant for a long time. So at the beginning of the 2017 season, I asked a bloke who should know (what it meant from a Queensland point of view, anyway), the owner of the “Queenslander” call himself, Billy Moore.

“Fundamentally, the ‘Queenslander’ call and cause was all about helping your mate, no excuses,” Moore told Inside Sport back then.

The rep retirement of Thurston worried Queenslanders ahead of the 2018 series. (Photo by Getty Images)

“Why it is so powerful and strong is that, for every Queenslander, it’s their brand; especially over the last decade and a bit, with what the Queensland side has achieved. It’s just gotten bigger; today it’s the biggest brand in Queensland. You go to Suncorp Stadium on State of Origin night, the crowd screams it before the game starts, and they don’t stop. And the players hear it, they know. They can sense it.”

This year the Queenslanders, fans and players, even before a tackle had been made, seemed to have changed their tune about how possible a NSW series win was. It’s likely this had more to do with the retirement of their beloved superstars Thurston, Cronk and Smith from rep football than a sudden newfound respect for their arch enemy. But the seeds of respect that it was game-on were there nonetheless.

(Image at top by Getty Images)

A lot of it also had to do with the appointment of new coach Brad Fittler and his coaching staff led by Blues vets Greg Alexander and Danny Buderus. Fittler was a winner as a player – won grand finals at two different clubs, hardly lost a game while wearing the green and gold and came back as an “old bloke” to score the winning charge-down try in the 2004 Origin series. If anyone in blue would ever “get” Origin, it would be Freddy.

For the past decade and a bit New South Wales has been easy fodder for those maroon people up north. To them, the post-match panel arguments and which-hunts between luminaries like Gus Gould, Joey Johns and Paul Vautin about what went wrong for the Blues must’ve been real get-the-popcorn-out stuff … Watching these New South Welshmen harp on about one day actually winning an Origin series when they just don’t get it.

A change of selection philosophy based on in-form players hinted that the Blues might finally be "getting" State of Origin. (Photo by Getty Images)

And sure enough, as the 2018 series arrived, us blue folk were still at it, evidenced by remarks by Maroons stalwart Chris Close on the Fox League TV show Queenslanders Only ahead of the series opener. Close was astonished that a Blues legend like Paul Gallen, no less, could be complaining about the non-selection of certain players for Origin 1.

“That would never happen in Queensland; it’s just not part of our fabric, it’s not what we do,” quoted John Dean of Choppy for Fox Sports. “They don’t get it, and as long as they continue to do that, we’re a chance.”

Inside Sport’s weekly rugby league podcast, Dead In Goal, had a very intriguing guest on its show last week, Queensland hardman Kevin Campion. When the talk got around to Origin, the four-time Maroon had an interesting take on where the Blues were at, and why it was starting to worry Queenslanders.

“We’ve been saying for so many years that New South Wales just doesn’t get it, and they haven’t,” Campion said. “It has been a war cry of ours from a Queenslander point of view that they don’t get it. We’re talking about good guys and good culture, good on and off-field performances. But this year I think they’ve got it … unfortunately. They’ve picked a really good side, some good characters.”

Going back to Billy Moore’s comments about the Queensland philosophy of doing it for your mate, the Blues’ veteran five-eighth Jimmy Maloney made good listening at the post-match presser on Sunday night when asked about the talk out in the middle in the heat of battle, especially following James Roberts’ sin-binning.

Mutual respect between state skippers Greg Inglis and Boyd Cordner. (Photo by Getty Images)

“We just had to turn up for each other,” Maloney told the gathered media. “We knew what we had to do. We spoke about it beforehand; the match was never going to go to plan: it never does. Winning an Origin series is special, it’s hard to do for a reason.

“We said before the game there’d be things going against us. And that how we reacted to that and what we did would determine the result … We turned up for each other and we held on.”

Turning up for each other … So is this the turning point? Does NSW finally get Origin? We probably need to see a few more series wins from them for that theory to be proven outright. At least the attitude and philosophy has changed.

A catch cry like Billy’s “Queenslander” – a bluer version, of course - would be handy, too.

James Maloney and his men went into battle for each other ... an approach that has worked for Queensland for so many years. (Photo by Getty Images)