The 2025 State of Origin series is now part of maroon folklore with the shield going to the victorious and valiant Queensland side.
The post-mortem on where it all went wrong for the NSW Blues is well underway.
Sometimes, numbers speak louder than words—and there are some extremely worrying statistics to come out of both the series and especially the deciding game in for Blues fans.
NSW Halves – 0 assists, trys or linebreaks from halfback
Across the entire State of Origin series, the players who featured in the halves for the Blues contributed just one linebreak assist and two try assists.
Beyond those team-based attacking stats, no individual moment of brilliance came from the NSW halves either: zero tries and zero linebreaks.
Whilst thats not all on one player and is a poor statistical reflection across Mitchell Moses and Jarome Luai as well, superstar and touted future immortal Nathan Cleary contributed not a single attacking stat in the all-important decider—or across the entire series.
At this level of rugby league, you simply cannot compete if your halves aren’t generating any attack with the ball in hand, which is even more alarming if your best player fails to create anything over three Origin games.
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Possession – 50%
In the decider that clinched victory for the Maroons, NSW actually had 50% of the possession—and more total time with the football than their opposition.
They also had 503 passing receipts to Queensland’s 467 and completed more passes overall. Some will point to the Blues' 11 errors, but their completion rate of 82% was solid enough to put Queensland under far more pressure than they did.
The Blues had more ball and decent field position—but basically had very little to show for it.
Kicking – 660 Metres
One concern raised after Jarome Luai was chosen to rekindle his combination with Nathan Cleary—following Mitch Moses' injury—was simple: kicking.
A major reason Moses was originally picked was his elite kicking game, allowing Cleary to share the load and avoid being the sole organiser.
Once Game I revealed Cleary was carrying a groin injury that saw him surprisingly relinquish goal-kicking duties, Moses’ role became even more vital.
While Jarome Luai is a quality player, few would list kicking as a top-tier skill and the Blues had an 18th man who arguably has the most feared torpedo bomb in the NRL as well as a massive boot in general play—yet decided he wasn’t needed.
The result? In Game III, NSW kicked for just 660 metres across 25 general-play kicks, while their opposition kicked for 1,039 metres—off just three additional kicks.
Second Phase Play – 20 Offloads
If your halves aren’t creating and your set structures aren’t yielding results, you need quality second-phase play to find points.
Remarkably, NSW produced 20 offloads in Game III compared to the Maroons’ meagre 5, and they led this category across the entire series in the end as well.
If we stretch the definition a bit, even tackle breaks can contribute to creating second-phase opportunities—and the Blues topped that metric too, winning 35 to 31 in Game III.
What Does It All Mean?
Unfortunately, there’s no stat for attitude or commitment. If there was, it’s safe to say the Blues would have lost that battle in a landslide.
When it’s all said and done, the statistics say the NSW Blues had, among other things, the possession, attack and second-phase play to win the decider.
But—like much of the series—the statistics also show they were out of ideas, couldn’t create anything and fell well short in the kicking department.
If someone viewed the raw statistics from Game III without knowing the result, there’s a good chance they’d think NSW had won—and won convincingly.
That fact alone, like these numbers, is alarming. It should be causing real concern inside the NSW camp heading into next year’s series, which is already a major talking point as the Blues look toward redemption in 2026.