Blues bury demons to claim breakthrough Origin series victory

Their 18-14 win over a game Maroons outfit at ANZ Stadium sealed NSW's second series win in 13 attempts, but it was the way they did it that let their long-suffering fans believe that there are blues skies ahead – both figuratively and literally.

And Queensland? Well, they looked like a game old cat that finally used up all of its nine lives despite leading 10-0 at the 20-minute mark.

While a host of Queensland greats had already called it quits, Billy Slater was the last at the party and – as those guests typically do –  he caused some trouble on the way out, laying on the opening two tries for Valentine Holmes and Dane Gagai.

It was a mere millimetre of chalk that denied Gagai the opening try just nine minutes in with a classic Queensland ambush seemingly in the offing.

James Maloney almost made it worse when he came close to gifting Will Chambers an intercept try only to suddenly make things better in laying on Josh Addo-Carr's 24^th minute try – with a similarly risky long-ball. Classic Jimmy.

It was the start of the tide turning, with bunker official Steve Chiddy awarding Boyd Cordner a penalty try six minutes later after he was felled by Ben Hunt in pursuit of a Maloney grubber in the Maroons in-goal.

Maloney converted from in front for a 12-10 halftime-lead. It gave coach Brad Fittler no cause to rest easy, but he relaxed just a smidge when Latrell Mitchell barged over the top of Chambers for the Blues third try 12 minutes into the second stanza.

Maloney's sideline conversion pushed the margin out to 18-10 with still 28 minutes to play, but Chambers quickly pulled it back to four with his try 12 minutes later.

The plot thickened when James Roberts was sin-binned with 11 minutes to play after taking out Gavin Cooper in what looked an almost carbon-copy of the Cordner-Hunt collision in the first half.

The Maroons had their sniff, but Hunt finished the set by cannoning a grubber into the back fence. It was as close as they got as the Blues closed it out.