Which was the bigger moment: the triumphant return of one of the Blues' favourite sons or the stunning send-off of one of their greatest enemies?
The Holden State of Origin series is with us again for another year, and we at NRL.com are celebrating by asking fans to vote on their favourite Origin moment.
Johns to the rescue
With the Blues losing the first match of the 2005 series 24-20, the Blues sent out an SOS to Andrew Johns. The future immortal had been plagues by back and knee injuries in his later career and in 2005, finally looking like putting together some game time and returning to peak form, was cruelly rubbed out by a broken jaw in a collision with Warriors fullback Jerome Ropati. He was touch and go for Game Two in Sydney and when he did run out in his old sky blue No.7 jersey, it was his first competitive hit-out more than a month. But in the way only a player of Johns's class can, he turned in a match-winning performance in his side's 32-22 triumph, then backed it up in Game Three as the Blues romped home 32-10 at Suncorp – their last series win for eight years.
The Tallis send-off
There's one thing you can't call a referee and that's "a cheat" but it didn't stop 'the Raging Bull' Gorden Tallis from doing so in the series opener in 2000. In a tight game where Queensland saw red over a controversial try to Ryan Girdler, Tallis unloaded on Harrigan and questioned the referee's integrity in such a way that left Harrigan with no other choice to send the back-rower off. Despite the pleas of Queensland halfback Adrian Lam the referee Tallis was marched. It was all downhill from there for the Queenslanders as not only did they go on to lose that game but the whole series in a 3-0 whitewash.
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