On the park it was absolutely thrilling, arguably the best of the year. It looks as if the Origin hangover has been cast off, but a closer look shows that it lasts even longer than your columnist's post-Dicey Rileys Sunday malaise.

It's not simply the fatigue factor. That's self-evident, but the mental and pyschological effects can drag well into the later season. Some can't quite shrug it off at all.

Wayne Bennett was unusually expansive when he touched on the issue in specific regard to his playmaker Cody Walker after the Rabbitohs snatched a late victory over the Dragons on Friday night.

Walker was of course the form player of the competition over the opening half of the season, catapaulting him into one of the most feel-good Origin debuts at the age of 30.

We all know how that turned out, though in the aftermath to the Blues epic series win many may have forgotten.

You can't say Brad Fittler got it wrong, he put his own neck on the line naming a team for game two that was roundly criticised before delivering an emphatic response in Perth.

That team went on to win the series in the most memorable of fashions. Well played, but it really doesn't make Walker any less hard done by.

To be picked, thrown on an edge with a distracted and out of sorts Latrell Mitchell and hooked midway through the match is hardly a way for a half to put his stamp on Origin.

He also then had to deal with the small-minded fools who pointed to his so-called anthem protest at the reason for his shaky debut. Anthony Griffin put his hat in the ring for 'dumbest comment of the year' honours with his analysis of it.

For one, it wasn't a protest in the sense that many viewed it. Walker wasn't even pushing it, he simply gave an honest answer when repeatedly asked about it.

How the suggestion accounts for Will Chambers' performance in game one, or Blake Ferguson's in game three is yet to be illustrated. It wasn't intended as such but Fittler's attempt at humour in confirming James Maloney's recall because "Braith Anasta wasn't available" was salt in the wounds.

Walker now looks set to join a somewhat lengthy list of one-and-done Origin players. Even for a late bloomer like Walker, who perhaps never imagined he'd play Origin, that knowledge has to sting.

He certainly wasn't the whole cause, but the Rabbitohs dropped four in a row through that period. Walker was the Rabbbitohs best on Friday night and looks to be close to his early-season form but Bennett admitted he did have to help lift him out of the doldrums.

"Origin has a huge impact on your club in different ways," Bennett said.

"As a coach you know your players better than anybody else. He was out of form when he came out of Origin and the disappointment that went with all of that but I thought he handled it really well.

"I helped him out with that over the last month, I made him captain when a couple of other guys probably could've been but I think he needed the challenge.

"There's not many situations I haven't experienced now so I wasn't worried about it, I knew that's where he would be. I just had to make sure I didn't destroy anymore of his confidence or do anything that made him feel he wasn't valued. He knows his value to South Sydney."

It shows that navigating, not just the Origin period, but the post-Origin period is an art form. Walker's circumstances are one example but, as Bennett said, the game's mid-season showpiece has a tendency of permeating everything if you're not careful.

Trent Robinson has faced the same task with Mitchell who looks to be back nudging his best.

Ben Hunt was clearly fatigued and battling in the wake of Origin III. He needed a spell. He got one, he and Paul McGregor copped a roasting for it and he came back against the Rabbitohs and admittedly over-tried to the point of error. Getting his confidence back will be a task despite a strong Origin series.

James Maloney and Nathan Cleary were hopelessly out of form to start the season but have been seemingly transformed by the Blues series win. That's not always the case either, a series win and the celebrations that follow can see some players shut up shop, done for the year.

During Laurie Daley's tenure the talk was that the players in camp spent more time talking about, and comparing, contracts than preparing for the games, heading back to their clubs suddenly feeling aggrieved.

It's what's believed to have been behind Phil Gould's famous assertion that he didn't want his Penrith players in the Blues set-up.

Amid all the different factors, the player a coach has going into Origin may not be the same player he gets back, and its often got little to do with the physical.

Bennett's handling of Walker shows that he's lost none of his touch when it comes to pushing the right buttons on his players.