Although the home fortress was breached and the Blues claimed the series, Maroons skipper Daly Cherry-Evans was proud to see a more ‘Queensland-like’ performance from his team, going down in a fighting effort.
Humbled across the park in Game Two, the Maroons responded with a gutsy opening half to start the decider, somehow managing to take a slim 2-0 lead at the break, despite having only 40 percent of possession at half-time.
In a game filled with niggle, Cherry-Evans was a central figure in the most controversial moment of the night with his running battle with Jarome Luai culminating in a melee that saw two players sin binned and one ejected from the bench.
“It's just been a bit of a theme of the series to be fair, just all that sort of stuff, the niggle I guess," Cherry-Evans said.
“It just sort of boiled over. Just really proud of the way that no-one hesitated to get in there.
“I feel like I've got a lot of love and support from my teammates.
Things are heating up
“Really proud of that side of the game. I don't know if we expected for (the niggle) to go to where it went to tonight.
“I don't know what it looked like, but it felt pretty wild out there. It felt like Origin … it was a throwback.
‘I think we can be proud of the way we handled it all.
“There were moments in Game Two that obviously we felt like we let each other down by not being there for each other.
“So I think that's part of what I'm proud of most is how we stuck together.”
Kurt Capewell was one of the Queensland forwards maligned for their inability to counter the aggression and intensity of the Blues pack at the MCG and had bristled at claims of the Maroons being “monstered” in their heavy defeat.
Promoted to start for the decider, Capewell began the match like he had a point to prove and shared his skipper’s sentiments that the side did a better job of standing up for each other.
“I think we gave it everything, didn't have much go away, especially in that first half to go in at half-time two-nil up, I thought it was tremendous effort; might have come back to bite us all the work we've done, but we definitely didn't miss the physical part tonight,” Capewell told NRL.com.
“That is Origin football at the end of the day, so it was good to not miss the start of that, so we definitely improved on the start of Game Two, but that wasn’t enough.
“One thing about this is everyone stood up for each other tonight and when we needed someone to show up, most of the time we had one showing up, so it’s something to take away from it.”
Following the loss, Cherry-Evans was again asked about his plans for his representative future; questions he had tried to deflect throughout the series.
While the Manly captain had earlier said those sorts of decisions were left to the off-season, with the adrenaline of one of the most intense games of Origin in recent times coursing through his body, Cherry-Evans said he was keen to play on and make amends for losing a series decider at home.
“I'll be completely honest with you, I thought I was done last year, but the fire just keeps burning and mentally and physically, I still feel like I can do it, it's as simple as that,” Cherry-Evans said.
“I know there's a lot of footy to unfold hopefully with Manly for this year; if I can walk away and feel like I can do it again next year, I'm going to keep doing it.
“That's all provided I'm the right person for the job as well.
From the field: Cherry-Evans
“There's a couple of layers to it, but ultimately – physically and mentally – if I can do it, I want to come back.
“I love this team. I'm proud to be the captain and it's not ideal losing, that’s the competitor in me.
“I'm loving the game, I'm loving competing.
“Don't get me wrong, it takes a hell of a lot of work to make sure my body's good week-to-week, but the pros are far, far outweighing the cons right now.
“The result is super disappointing, but (playing Origin has) been more than I had ever thought of as a little kid.
“So either way, I'm proud of what's happened so far … (and) the competitor in me thinks it's hard to walk away from tonight.”
