This was the team Madge wanted and they were brilliant

Just a couple of weeks ago, it seemed like the Michael Maguire era for New South Wales was already descending into chaos. A heavy defeat at home had pessimism at an all-time high. Queensland fans were already flying high, and articles were being penned about how Billy Slater had earned a gigantic contract extension at the helm.

The MCG was to be the site of the funeral in 2024, before Lang Park served as the grounds for the coronation. But it's funny how things pan out sometimes, isn't it? The Blues produced a ruthless display that may well be without peer at this level. Even in recent shellackings like 2021's opener and 2015's decider, the game was really blown out as it progressed, rather than being beyond doubt within half an hour or so.



For Maguire, things couldn't have gone better. The announcement of his appointment as Blues coach was met with relative apathy, his team selection for Game I widely criticised, and the ensuing result even more so. But the thing about both the team and result in Sydney a few weeks ago was that neither was really in his control.

A slew of players he wanted in the team were unavailable or underdone and not picked, and the game was over as soon as Joseph Suaali'i collected Reece Walsh high and got himself sent off. But for Game II, we saw a team far closer to what Maguire would have wanted from the jump. Dylan Edwards was healthy and named at fullback, Souths' duo of Latrell Mitchell and Cameron Murray returned and Mitchell Moses was trusted t.