"DO YOU know how hard it is to play Origin?".
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The voice half thunders, half pleads down the phone to me. The rot had only just started to set in for NSW when the representative player posed this exact question. Up until this point, the player and this columnist had a great working relationship.
The call had been made on a completely unrelated story, but I'd quickly realised he'd taken exception to the player rating given from the recent Origin game, despite the fact I personally had not even provided the mark out of 10 which raised his ire.
Whatever words I used to try and defuse the situation were futile, he was "off me".
The conversation has stuck with me for the best part of a decade.
Because NSW are still finding excuses at a time when Queensland players are still finding ways to win.
Of course, it's a tough arena, Origin.
The toughest physically in the world in any sport.
Jarryd Hayne was physically ill and collapsed for the cause at half-time in game one.
But then he casually flicks a pass around behind his back and into touch, leaving Brett Morris to forlornly watch it dribble over the touchline in game two.
Hayne also opted for the selfish option at the other end, when a selfless Blues mantra would have dictated he pass for Morris to almost certainly score and put the game - and the series - beyond Queensland's reach.
These are all the easy options NSW have been taking since 2006.
The same reasons why great footballers like the player defending his reputation down the phone line to me several years earlier are heavily criticised.
And now, even though Johnathan Thurston won't be playing in the decider, the narrative is already written.
You can picture it now.
Every sinew in Cooper Cronk's body has combined to kick the perfect field goal, or pass to win in the final moments.
Suncorp Stadium descends into pandemonium as Thurston, arm in a sling, walks on to the playing arena to embrace his victorious Queensland teammates.
It's almost the same fairytale as was Thurston on the same field in 2011, in a wheelchair after suffering a knee injury during Darren Lockyer's Origin send-off.
Of course, just as Lockyer did, Thurston thoroughly deserves to be farewelled as a winner. He's one of the all-time greats, some argue the greatest.
The Maroons winning this year's series would stand alongside the Mark Coyne miracle try and Fatty's Nuffies in 1995 in Origin history.
These are the situations Queensland absolutely thrive on.
And yet, this was supposed to be our time, remember?
The year the Blues finally saw off the greatest Origin team ever assembled and started their own era of success. Of course, it was Andrew Johns who best summed up how fragile NSW are, since he last laced a boot.
An Immortal, premiership player and football genius to match Thurston, he labelled it the "dumbest half of football NSW has played”.
The fundamental failure to target Thurston, the only other modern halfback who can rival Johns as the greatest ever, when he clearly had a shoulder injury.
An injury which Queensland later conceded they expected NSW to exploit in the second half and has now ended Thurston's season. Losing in Brisbane in game three could scar another NSW generation and end the coaching career of Laurie Daley, as well as the representative careers of players like Mitchell Pearce and Brett Morris.
Unlike when the player I argued with who wore the jersey, NSW now have the skill and muscle to beat Queensland on their own merit.
So yeah, we appreciate how hard it is in Origin.
After 10 years of failure in 11, it's worn thin.
Queensland are now underdogs again, with every motivation. NSW are still favourites, with every excuse.