The 10 minute ‘rest’ given to Tom Flegler in Adelaide was the worst sin-binning in the game’s history. For the Maroons, it was also the best.

So much so that when the two teams reconvene at Suncorp Stadium on June 21, Queensland coach Billy Slater should pull his forwards aside before they run out and say, ‘Listen fellas, if we need a bit of a lift towards the end of the game, one of you blokes will have to take one for the team and get sent off, okay?’ Well, why not?

Queensland’s 28-18 win in Game 1 was one of its gutsiest ever, but it took Flegler’s ridiculous sin-binning to light the fuse that led to the Maroons steamrolling the Blues in the final moments. Up until then the Blues, somehow, had grabbed the lead and the momentum seemed to be swinging their way.

What the Maroons needed was something to galvanise them, bring them closer together and, even if nothing was said, exhort them, tired as they were, to find that extra effort.

‘Champions are like good horses. They rise to the occasion. Once they get out on the track and the saddle is put on, the adrenalin flows. They are warriors who hear the bugle call.’ Those aren’t my words, by the way. They belong to Queensland’s father of Origin, former QRL chairman Senator Ron McAuliffe, and he spoke them at the dinner he hosted before kick-off of the very first Origin on July 8, 1980. He was referring to Arthur Beetson and Rod Reddy at the time, but the words could just as easily have been used to describe Reuben Cotter, Pat Carrigan or Lindsay Collins.

That’s the thing about Origin – or Origin as far as Queenslanders are concerned anyway. Nothing has changed in 43 years. Put a maroon jersey on a club player and, more times than not, something happens. Like the Senator said, they rise to the occasion, the adrenalin flows and they hear the bugle call.

It doesn’t work every time of course. NSW has had it’s share of miraculous wins as well, but the chances of them squaring the series at Suncorp Stadium in two weeks’ time rest somewhere between Buckley’s and none. They certainly won’t do it playing like they did in Adelaide, and they won’t do it with that same team.

So who do they bring in? Most Queenslanders’ answer to that would be, ‘who cares?’ but for the sake of the exercise, let’s speculate.

It’s not so much a case of ‘who would you drop from the pack?’ as much as ‘who would you bring in?’ and no-one comes to mind. They’ve already tried to inject some biff, through Hudson Young and Tevita Pangai Jnr, and that didn’t work out too well. Besides, the days of bringing in ‘hit-men’ like Peter Kelly, Les Boyd and Mark Geyer and telling them to run amok are long gone. They’d be off the field more than they’d be on. So any major changes would have to be in the backs.

Obviously Latrell Mitchell will come in somewhere. I’d have him at centre replacing Trbojevic, and bring in Kotoni Staggs for Crichton. Freddy Fittler has said that he won’t drop James Tedesco, but what’s he got to lose? Apart from the series and his job, I mean. I’d have Dylan Edwards at fullback, but my biggest changes would be in the halves. Even if Nathan Cleary hadn’t been injured I would have dropped him and Jarome Luai and would pick Adam Reynolds and Cody Walker. A couple of old heads to steady the ship could make all the difference in the closing stages. Who knows, it might even cause Daly Cherry-Evans to pull the troops around him and say, ‘Boys, we need something special here … one of you is going to have to go…’