Having won the first three State of Origin series from 1982 to 1984, Queensland were licking their wounds ahead of Game Three in 1985 after dropping the opening two matches.
Maroons back-rower Paul Vautin had debuted in Game One, 1982 and been part of all three winning series but he admitted something felt different in 1985.
“Steve Mortimer single-handedly convinced New South Wales to play Origin like it should be played,” Vautin recalled.
“They didn’t really get it at the start but his passion for his state was magnificent and that changed everything.”
Vautin was full of praise for New South Wales, who wrapped up the series early on the back of Michael O’Connor’s boot in Game One and Brett Kenny’s famous late try in Game Two.
But Queensland had some extra motivation for the third match of the series, to be played back in Queensland six weeks after Game Two at the SCG.
“Between Game Two and Three, an Australian team was picked to play three Tests in New Zealand and NSW coach Terry Fearnley was also the Australian coach and he almost destroyed the entire tour,” Vautin said with a chuckle.
“It started with the very first training session when he got up Wally (Lewis) for being 20-odd seconds late for a team huddle and it got worse and worse from there.”
Vautin said the Queenslanders didn’t have a problem with any of their Origin opponents but found it increasingly difficult to work with Fearnley as the tour went on.
“We won the first Test and then snuck home 10-6 in a tight match in the second Test,” Vautin recalled.
“We were in the sheds after the match, enjoying our first XXXX and Fearnley came in screaming.
“He told us we all ought to be ashamed of ourselves and that most of us should never play for Australia again.
“We didn’t have our best game, but we still won a Test match in New Zealand against a pretty handy side so we didn’t deserve that sort of spray.
“Our little halfback, Mark Murray, jumped up and let Fearnley know where he could go and needless to say, he was dropped for the third Test.”
Murray was one of a number of Queenslanders dropped for the Third Test, which New Zealand won 18-0, fuelling the fire for the Maroons ahead of the final Origin match two weeks later.
“We were already pretty filthy about losing the Origin series, but then Fearnley’s performance on that tour put a real fire in our belly.
“When we got back into Queensland camp, all we could talk about was giving it to New South Wales and getting one back on Fearnley and that’s exactly what we did.”
The Maroons beat New South Wales 20-6, with Dale Shearer scoring two tries and Wally Fullerton-Smith named man of the match.
“I’ll never forget Greg Dowling towards the end of the game, running over to Fearnley in the dugout and telling him exactly what he thought of him,” Vautin chuckled.
“It was hilarious, I still laugh when I think about that today.”
