Teddy's matchwinner haunted by 2016 deja vu

Forget Mark Coyne and the Sunshine State pulling Origin victories from where it doesn't shine.

James Tedesco had only one memory in mind as he loomed in support of Blake Ferguson with 15 seconds on the clock on Wednesday night.

That was being mown down by Cooper Cronk on the same patch of ANZ Stadium turf at the very start of his Origin career.

Unofficially crowned the world's best player by teammates, opponents and pundits alike, the official Wally Lewis Medallist will go down in Origin folklore thanks to his series-winning try on Wednesday night.

Turns out Tedesco and Ferguson had actually done this dance before in the former's first Origin outing in 2016, only for a desperate cover tackle from Cronk to deny the Blues fullback with less than a minute on the clock.

"It was similar to one in '16 on my debut," Tedesco said.

"Fergo did the same thing, he passed it in [after a long break] but I got tackled short of the line. I sort of had that in my mind, I didn't want to get tackled.

"Someone sort of slipped over in front of me and I went for the line."

Tedesco's tale from three years ago ended happily as well, with Michael Jennings scoring moments later for a face-saving game three win after Queensland had already claimed the series.

But this was the true fairy tale ending, even if Ferguson and Tedesco were pointing fingers as to how the match-winner was almost botched.

"Teddy was running too fast!" Ferguson crowed of his final pass that had Tedesco pull up in his tracks before beating Moses Mbye and Dane Gagai to the line.

"I threw it dead flat and he still overran it, I couldn't believe it."

"I don't think I overran it!" Tedesco shot back. "I was just pushing up and hoping for the best. It's a tough pass going at speed to throw it inside."

All's well that ends well for the sky blue matchwinners.

"He overran it," Ferguson insisted.

"But you know what, it actually helped him. Because he stopped and Mbye slipped over and it made the try a little bit easier for him."

And as for Ferguson's high-wire tip-toeing down the right touchline, Mitchell Pearce's money ball to Tom Trbojevic sending the big man on his way?

"I was just running," Ferguson responded with Forrest Gump-like sincerity.

Just like Coyne's 1994 heart-stopper, Tedesco and Ferguson now command a rare place in Origin history.

Where so many of those inimitable moments come splashed in Maroon, or as Tedesco plainly remembers, with a champion like Cronk on hand to deny the Blues theirs.

"We spoke about that," Tedesco said.

"In years gone by those moments have all been Queensland scoring in the last minute to take victory from NSW.

"We were in a good position and we just let them back in and Queensland always fight to the death.

"I've seen that [Coyne] try get shown a lot as a big Queensland memory and for us to go back-to-back, hopefully, it can be a great NSW memory.

"But I think it's the start of something special."