Missed all the hype of the first State of Origin game and need and/or want to catch up in the quickest way possible? Well The Gurgler has you covered for the latest Dolphins game with our 2025 State of Origin Game 1 – One Minute Match Report.
Our popular One Minute Match Reviews offer up just enough facts and figures and opinion to make it through the waiting for an Uber or Monday morning coffee catch ups, fifty cent train rides or carpools.
2025 State of Origin Game 1 Final Thoughts
Like Jerry Springer, but for rugby league, a quick few thoughts jammed together to add context to the stat.
It wasn’t a great game, but the Blues did more than enough in bursts and overall to win. The score flatters Queensland massively, who were terrible.
And NSW did what Queensland used to do so well. Effort, power, a little bit of fire, and pride in the jersey. The little things. And now Queensland are doing what they used to give NSW plenty of stick for – working out who to dump. It was such a bad performance that it’s hard to know who to drop.
DCE will be one of the names mentioned, and rightly so. He has been out of form in clubland since carrying on about his contract at Manly, and he kept out Queensland’s best player last series in Tom Dearden who had to make do with a backup hooker role. Which he did well, and Queensland looked their best with him. And it’s not as if DCE is one of Queensland’s favourites anyway.
One underrated factor could have been Craig Bellamy, as he was in the Blues coaching box, and that coincided with Storm stars Cameron Munster and Harry Grant having ordinary games. Whilst neither will be dropped, the moving out of DCE could allow Bulldogs hooker Reed Mahoney to come in as back up, and the Maroons need that bit of mongrel and jerk may I say. As there was precious little last night.
Speaking of coaches, maybe Billy Slater’s prickliness in press conferences filters into the dressing room. We aren’t to know that, but it’s hard to know if he is inspiring or just arrogant. The arrogant would certainly be attributable to his Channel Nein work, based on their awful commentary on Wednesday. Just three games to go in 2025 in that regard.
Two of Queensland’s better players were Robert Toia, who has only made his NRL debut this season, and Jeremiah Nanai who seemed to care a lot, and that may be due to a stint in Qld Cup this season. He may have appreciated being in the team more. Whilst they rest appeared to be trying, it barely seemed out of club mode, unlike NSW who stepped up.
NSW were good all night, and particularly superb in the latter half of the first half with their brisk three try burst. All of which were lovely, and Queensland seemingly no idea how to handle. The Blues did seem to back off in the second half, as errors and penalties crept in, but the game never seemed in doubt, even before their final try.
Payne Haas is a machine and worth of Man of the Match. It must have been nice to play without an entire Broncos team on his back, and played accordingly. Zac Lomax was also immense, proving the growing importance of wingers in the game. Nathan Cleary ran the show as he always does, but a touch of human about him with the missed conversions, which were welcomed by Queenslanders and less so by 13+ margin gamblers. Latrell Mitchell doesn’t need to do much except a moment of occasional brilliance and staying out of trouble, he did both. And you could rate all NSW starting players seven out of ten and above.
NSW are 14/20 after winning game one for the series. And Origin heads to Perth where NSW are 2/2 with the margin of 32 in both games. If Queensland play like they did on Wednesday, it will be double that.
2025 State of Origin Game 1 Result Stats
Courtesy of nrl.com
BEST OF BARELY INTERESTING STATS
- Going back to 2014, there have been nine opening State of Origin fixtures played at non-neutral grounds. The away team has won eight of those games.
- This is NSW’s first run of three wins in a row since Game 2 of 2005 to Game 1 of 2006.
- But be aware, Queensland won the next four games after that, including the 2006 series.
- The last four series openers at Suncorp Stadium have seen NSW win three games to Queensland’s one.
- In the 20 times NSW have won game one of a three game series, they have won the series 14 times. It’s 7/10 when game one has been played at Suncorp Stadium aka Lang Park.
2025 State of Origin Game 1 Player Stats
It was pretty one-sided stuff for NSW on field, but do the stats looks as bad as they felt for Queensland at Suncorp Stadium?
Below are some key position comparisons and stand out players.
