I reckon we saw the start of one of the great Origin careers on Wednesday night...

I’ve been lucky enough to be in the stands at Suncorp Stadium when some of the game’s biggest names have taken their first steps in the toughest arena there is.

I was there when Cameron Smith began what would prove to be the longest and most successful Origin journey of them all. But I can honestly say that even Smith didn’t come close to impressing as much on debut as 22-year-old Harry Grant did in the Maroons sensational 20-14 win.

You often hear coaches and commentators talking about how a young player looks as if he was ‘born to play Origin’. Rarely has that been the case as much as with Grant. From the moment he ran on at the 24-minute mark he looked totally comfortable, as if he had been playing Origin deciders in front of 49,000 screaming fans all his life. His crucial try when he darted, dummied and stretched across the line to give the Maroons what would prove to be a match-winning buffer 38 minutes later was the icing on the cake.

We read and heard a lot about the youth and inexperience of Wayne Bennett’s squad this season. One Sydney reporter went so far as to call them the worst Queensland side of all time – as team captain Daly Cherry-Evans noted as he held the shield aloft after fulltime. The mighty Maroons made the critics eat their words and I reckon Harry Grant will be giving the Blues and their supporters headaches for the next ten years.

What do YOU reckon?