Danny Buderus in huge Origin admission amid staggering truth behind 19-year NSW drought

Blues great Danny Buderus has warned Michael Maguire's NSW side that silencing the Queensland crowd by starting strong in defence will be crucial to their hopes of winning the State of Origin series on Wednesday night. Maguire's Blues have a chance to become just the third NSW side in history to win a deciding Origin game in enemy territory when they run out at Suncorp Stadium for Game 3.

Those two wins for the Blues in Queensland deciders have come in 13 attempts. And the last time NSW won at Suncorp Stadium to clinch the series in Game 3 came 19 years ago in 2005, showing just how enormous the task is confronting the Blues. Since that momentous victory in 2005, the Blues have lost in six Queensland deciders.

The Suncorp Stadium crowd is also mentioned as a huge factor behind the Maroons' dominance at home and data from league historian David Middleton showed last week that of the 60 Origin matches played in Brisbane, NSW have won the penalty count just nine times. Blues legend and former assistant coach Buderus captained that 2005 NSW side and says taking the crowd out of the equation is vital to the Blues' hopes of success.

Buderus says in order to do that the Blues have to get off to a strong start, particularly in defence. When Buderus' men claimed their momentous Game 3 victory in Brisbane in 2005, they were forced to repel five straight Queensland sets on their own tryline before running out 32-10 winners. And the former Blues skipper says Maguire's men will have to show that same level of resolute defence if they hope to stop Billy Slater's Maroons winning a third straight series.

"I took that with me for the rest of my career," NSW's 2005 captain Buderus said. "That opening to that game and that feeling. Yes, you can go out and play well in attack. But when you defend, the trust and energy that creates when you're absorbing all pressure, that builds something. It's a mindset, it creates a belief. If you jag an early try it can out you into a false pre-tense. But when you have to stand firm over and over again, it breeds and breathes belief into your team."

Blues need to silence Queensland crowd in Origin decider

NSW sides have found out in the past that the stronger the Maroons start, the more the parochial home crowd tends to spur them on. And Buderus warned Maguire's men that they'll have to be prepared to scrap for everything, while staying on the right side of the officials, if they are to rise above the hostile atmosphere inside the Suncorp Stadium cauldron.

"It vibrates, it's hot. Everything around that stadium is different," Buderus added. "The amount of energy it gives off. You feel it as soon as Queensland runs out. Nothing is given. You have to earn everything. That's field position, that's decisions."

Anthony Minichiello played fullback for NSW in that famous 2005 decider and said the Blues players needed to "embrace" the hatred they'll receive in Queensland and use it as motivation. "I really enjoyed going up there because you're hated," he told AAP. "This team they have a bit of that gritty attitude. I like it. "That's what you need in Origin footy. To go up there you definitely need that mindset of going up there to take it on."

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Both Buderus and Minichiello said they didn't realise the importance of their 2005 Game 3 victory at the time. But now that 19 years has passed and no NSW team has been able to repeat the feat, its significance is obvious. And Minichiello is backing the 2024 team to write its own chapter in history by joining his 2005 heroes and the class of 1995 as the only Blues teams in history to win an Origin decider in Queensland.

"Silencing their fans and holding the trophy up as they left the stadium, was very satisfying," Minichiello said. "That part you take in and savour. But the enormity of a decider we didn't realise until years later. When you think about it, it's crazy. It's been 19 years. But I think they can do it this year."

with AAP