State of Origin Game Three decider LIVE: Score updates, news, video, highlights
Wide World of Sports' Paul Gallen is on deck tonight for our Game Three live coverage of State of Origin!
Queensland legend Darren Lockyer has warned the Maroons to not chop and change the squad for next year's series if they fall short in the decider.
Wayne Bennett's squad came into this year's Origin series as rank outsiders but with the series tied at 1-1, have a chance to pull off one of the great Origin upsets.
A Blues win would make it three consecutive Origin series triumphs for Brad Fittler's squad, and Lockyer said chopping and changing could see NSW go on a run similar to Queensland in the late 2000s.
"Turn back to when we won our fourth in a row and what happened then was we just had this unwavering believe within the squad and New South Wales just kept changing their team and that just played into our hands," he told Wide World of Sports' QLDER.
"We don't have the same amount of players to select as New South Wales did, but I think we've got to be careful if New South Wales happen to win this series that we don't get too trigger happy and chop and change the team too much."
Tonight's State of Origin decider at Suncorp Stadium will be played in front of a capacity crowd of over 50,000, after the Queensland government announced further easing of restrictions last week, and that is music to the ears of devoted Maroons fans.
On home turf Queensland have dominated in deciders, and there's no cauldron quite like Suncorp Stadium for an Origin finale.
"The deciders in Queensland, there's been 11 and Queensland have won eight of them and there was one draw in 1999," Billy Slater told Wide World of Sports' Billy's Breakdown.
"These 34 players are going to experience probably the greatest atmosphere that rugby league can produce, especially if you're in a Maroons jersey."
Maroons legend Darren Lockyer said it's a huge advantage for the Queenslanders to have a capacity crowd for this year's decider, and all those cheering fans could prove the difference in a tight Origin tussle.
"It'll be massive," Lockyer said in Wide World of Sports' QLDER: Origin Special.
"I've got no doubt if you're on the try-line you've been defending four sets in a row, the crowd gets going and they just make you hang in there.
"And on the flip-side if you get in front, they get louder and louder and they just make you want to play for it.
"I think the roar will be massive given the circumstances we've had this year and where the series sits. I think the atmosphere will be amazing."
NSW will be hoping they can repeat history of 2005, where the Blues won their third-straight series by clinching the decider in Brisbane - the last time they won Game Three at Suncorp Stadium.
"We didn't know it at the time but it would be the last series NSW would win for nine years," Slater added.
Kick-off is at 8.10pm (AEDT) tonight, with coverage EXCLUSIVELY LIVE on Nine and 9Now from 7pm (AEDT).
The 2020 Origin shield goes on the line on Wednesday night when the New South Wales Blues travel to Suncorp Stadium to take on the Queensland Maroons.
The Blues took out game two 34-10 but Queensland will have the advantage of a huge home crowd.
Read on for all the latest news and updates ahead of the decider.
Wayne Bennett hasn’t spoken to Tino Fa’asuamaleaui about his fiery rivalry with Payne Haas ahead of the Origin decider at Suncorp Stadium.
Bennett blamed the media for inciting the Game II brawl between the pair that resulted in a double sin-binning, which makes his decision to not address the issue with his player a little hard to fathom.
“I haven’t said much to him actually, at all,” Bennett said.
“He’s not someone you’ve kind of got to talk to a lot.
“He’s pretty well motivated and a a pretty easy to coach guy, he wants to do his best for you.
“He’s 20 years of age and we’ve got a decade of him, that’ll be good hey. Looking forward to that.
“He’s only going to get better and he’s not going to be intimidated by anybody, so let’s get out there and see what happens tomorrow night.”
On the other side of the personal rivalry Haas has vowed to not take a backward step if hostilities resume between the two players or any other teammates.
“I won’t back down, it’s State of Origin, you never back down to anything like that, especially that kind of stuff,” Haas told Channel 9.
“If it ever happens again so if it ever happens again none of my teammates or me is going to back down.”
Channel 9’s coverage of the Origin decider is set to look a little different, with several changes due to the Queensland governments quarantine restrictions
Ray ‘Rabs’ Warren will call the game from a studio in Sydney, Phil Gould will be reinstated to the commentary team, while viewers will have the choice to watch the game from a camera trained solely on the NSW halfback Nathan Cleary.
However the decision to lock out Gould and Warren from Queensland will pose some challenges, according to Gould himself.
“He’s not keen to do it off the tube,” Gould said of Warren on the Six Tackles With Gus podcast.
“When you know Ray as well as we do, these little things can sort of set him off a bit.
“He relies a hell of a lot on the atmosphere at the ground for the tone. The crowd tells him when to get excited.
“So he’s never been keen to call a game off the screen in the studio for fear of the lack of atmosphere and not knowing when to get excited in the call.
“There is a huge advantage in being at the ground... you see more than the people at home are seeing on TV.”
Meanwhile Matty Johns said he was surprised that Gould was cut from the commentary team for Game II after claims of bias.
“I was really surprised last time when Nine took him off the coverage, I thought they’d throw their support behind him,” Johns said on SEN.
“Now, Gus can be a little bit biased, but if you listen to the Queensland blokes in State of Origin, they openly cheer.”
NSW legend Andrew Johns has called on the Maroons to do whatever it takes to shut down Nathan Cleary if they want to take out this year’s Origin series.
In particular he has praised the role of Melbourne star Christian Welch.
Cleary had two of his most poor games of the year in the grand final and game one of the State of Origin series.
The common denominator in both? Melbourne front rower Welch and his kick pressure.
“I cannot rap NSW halfback Nathan Cleary enough for his performance in game two,” Johns wrote in a column for the Sydney Morning Herald.
“He was under so much pressure and scrutiny but produced the best game I’ve ever seen him play. His kicking game was up there, or even better, than that of Ricky Stuart’s in the early 1990s.”
Welch returns this week though and Johns is sending a warning to Cleary.
“The Queenslanders get back prop Christian Welch. He was the man in the grand final for the Storm who terrorised Cleary’s kicking,” he said.
“In this decider, he’ll be offside, cheating, doing whatever he can to ruffle his feathers on that last play. Cleary won’t have the time he had in Sydney and that’s a big test for him.”