One New Zealand Warriors co-captain Mitchell Barnett has become a State of Origin winner for the second time in his three-season career.
The 32-year-old was on the field for a total of 38 minutes helping New South Wales to an upset 30-12 series-clinching victory over Queensland in front of a 52,452-strong crowd at Suncorp Stadium.
Two years ago Barnett made his Origin debut at the same venue and with the same outcome when the Blues prevailed 14-4 to take out the 2024 series 2-1.
Last night Barnett started the battle, was interchanged after 22 minutes and returned for a 16-minute stint late in the game.
He finished with 74 hard-earned metres from 12 runs, two tackle breaks, a perfect defensive effort (26 tackles with no misses), no errors and no penalties or six-again infringements.
Barnett missed only one tackle in the entire series making 17 tackles in the Origin II loss in Melbourne – as well as scoring his first Origin try – while he made 25 tackles with just one miss in game one in Sydney.
Overall he has missed only two tackles while making 124 in his five-match Origin career, the other coming in the Blues’ game one win last year before his season-ending knee injury.
While Barnett could celebrate clubmate Kurt Capewell – used for the opening 50 minutes in his 16th Origin appearance – was left to rue the outcome at the Maroons’ supposed fortress.
While New South Wales took the title it said everything about Origin football yet again that very little separated the two teams across the series. Indeed, the sides scored exactly the same number of points in the three games with 70.
