EMBARRASSING leak or pre-Origin mind games?

The Blues are understood to have left tactical notes in a dressing room that was later used by the Queenslanders ahead of Wednesday night’s Origin opener.

In an interview with Fox Sports News 500 reporter Sean Lawson, Queensland Origin legend Justin Hodges said he was aware that the Blues may have left notes on a dressing room whiteboard that was seen by the Maroons.

Lawson: “I’ve got some very good mail that NSW left some notes in the Queensland dressing room about their gameplan. They used that dressing room earlier this week and some notes were left on a whiteboard about how they were going to target Cooper Cronk, JT and also some notes on how they were going to play.”

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New South Wales State of Origin coach Laurie Daley. Source: AAP

Hodges: “I heard something similar. But if that happened it’d be pretty silly. You don’t want to give away your gameplan. If you look at guys like Thurston and Cronk, those are guys you always target. And it’s vice-versa - Queensland will target Adam Reynolds and James Maloney as well. It goes both ways.”

Lawson: “Could it be some fun and games a bit of a decoy to try and put the Maroons off?”

Hodges: “It could be. Loz is pretty good at doing some decoys. They also had Big Mal in there in Blues camp. Maybe he drew something up for the boys as a bit of a joke.”

Queensland State of Origin players Cooper Cronk (left) and Johnathan Thurston. Source: AAP

Fox Sports understands Queensland coaching staff walked into the dressing room on Tuesday and saw the whiteboard containing NSW notes. It is unclear if players were shown the notes.

It is believed NSW used the visitors change room earlier in the week while Origin livery was being added to the home room.

Notes on the whiteboard were apparently split into three different sections.

The first was dedicated to Queensland targets, with Cronk and Thurston singled out.

The other sections contained snippets of NSW’s gameplan. Specific details were not provided but it had the game broken down into quarters.

Cronk was only confirmed as a starter for the series opener early on Wednesday morning, having been under a cloud due to a rolled ankle in training. Such is his influence on the game, NSW swung into favourites with the bookies when it was thought he could miss out.

FIVE OTHER GREAT LEAKS ... AND FURPHIES

Bennett’s Broncos

Wayne Bennett famously left a note critical of Brisbane players in the Broncos’ dressing room before the 1993 grand final.

Bennett told the players the note was penned by the Dragons coaching staff when, in reality, the supercoach had penned it himself.

The ploy to motivate the Broncos clearly worked. Despite losing their final home-and-away match to St George, the Broncos won the grand final 14-6.

Buchanan and Sun Tzu

The Australian cricket team was aghast after the second Test of the 2001 Ashes series when it emerged John Buchanan’s notes had been slipped under the wrong hotel door.

The 10-page documented quoted extensive passages from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” - a book dating back to the fifth century BC that detailed military strategy.

“The same thing has happened before and it didn’t make any difference that time,” team manager Steve Bernard said at the time. “We went on to win every game and I don’t see why we can’t do that again.”

All Blacks’ security lapse

The British media had a field day after confidential team notes from the All Blacks were published in 2013.

The leak occurred when the New Zealanders left open a hotel door that contained a whiteboard full of jottings from a team meeting.

“We have given ourselves an uppercut,” Steve Hansen said at the time. “It was our problem letting someone in there. Ultimately, we shouldn’t have done that. But we can’t change it.”

All Blacks star Kieran Read.

Wallabies wobble

Sharp-eyed photographers snapped Wallabies coaches Michael Cheika and Mario Ledesma carrying team tactics notes ahead of the 2015 World Cup final against the All Blacks.

These were some of the notes:

“Kickoff receipt #4 Kieran Read (get him rattled).”

“Lineout attack, gainline front foot speed,” the notes state. “Expose Milner Skudder and Savea under ball or in backfield.”

“Carter running right to left ... Nonu steps back on the inside when line-speed against”.

Zidane’s slip up

Spanish newspaper AS published what it claimed were Zinedine Zidane’s tactics sheet to repel Barcelona in an El Clasico showdown two months ago.

The newspaper said Real Madrid’s notes were handed to them before the match.

The report highlighted a passage on “how to handle Messi falling deep into midfield to get on the ball: quick adjustments would need to be made in terms of marking and the defenders would have to be watchful for Luis Suarez’s diagonal runs in behind the back line.”