After losing the series-opener 11-10, NSW coach Laurie Daley and his players vowed never to take a backward step and to push the boundaries as much as the Maroons did at ANZ Stadium. By the end of Origin II, Queensland players were desperately looking for some respite from the rough-house antics of Klemmer and fellow props James Tamou and Aaron Woods, who niggled and wrestled in every tackle they were involved. Verbal exchange: David Klemmer and Corey Parker during Origin II. Credit:Jonathan Carroll Even Justin Hodges looked rattled after being roughed up on the ground and in the next set of tackles he hit Ryan Hoffman with a swinging arm that resulted in a grade-one careless high tackle charge. Billy Slater threw the ball at Tamou, while Thurston looked stunned when NSW hooker Robbie Farah pushed him in the face after making a tackle in back play.

The Blues had plotted to work over Thurston and his Queensland halves partner Daly Cherry-Evans, who was forced to make 30 tackles, and chance their arm more in attack. According to statistics provided by Prozone, halfback Trent Hodkinson handled the ball 52 times compared to his 39 touches in Origin I and the greater involvement of the Canterbury playmaker meant the Blues shifted the ball to left, where man-of-the-match Michael Jennings and star winger Brett Morris were positioned, on 14 occasions compared to eight in the previous game. In comparison, Cherry-Evans handled the ball on 25 occasions – less than half the 53 touches of Queensland's halfback in Origin I, Cooper Cronk. Thurston received the ball the same number of times (44) as he had in Sydney, while NSW five-eighth Mitchell Pearce had 54 touches compared to 57 in the previous game. Hoffman directed most of his 19 runs with the ball at Cherry-Evans and the Manly halfback was forced to make 12 more tackles than Cronk had in Origin I.

"That was my role and I wanted to do it as best I could so I just went out there to do it," Hoffman said. "If you get him making tackles then we would hopefully take away his attacking prowess, and I thought Beau Scott and the boys on our right side also did a good job at getting at Thurston." Hodkinson and Pearce had been in regular contact since Origin I about how they could improve their performances and decided the Blues needed to play a more expansive game. After being widely criticised for his lack of involvement and failure to manage the game when it was on the line at ANZ Stadium, Hodkinson said he had made a conscious decision to run the ball more on Wednesday night. "We knew in Game I it wasn't so much them beating us but us beating ourselves by not taking those opportunities that we needed to and being smarter with the footy," Hodkinson said. "We sort of played into their hands in game I but we knew we had to go out there and play our brand of footy." Pearce said that style involved throwing the ball around more than they had in Origin I and he, Hodkinson and hooker Farah kicked far less.