Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart at Origin of NSW Blues' Queensland wins

The NSW Blues have only ever won an Origin decider at Lang Park on two occasions and the Canberra Raiders coach was involved in both.

That's the mission facing the current crop of Blues when they face the Maroons in Origin III on Wednesday night.

In 1994 Stuart was the Blues halfback and 11 years later he returned as the NSW coach, with the visitors coming home triumphant on both occasions.

Both those series followed similar scripts - the Maroons winning game one before NSW fought back to level the series and then claim it in enemy territory.

Stuart says the belief and confidence the current Blues would have taken out of their 34-10 victory over the Maroons last week was the key to them joining the classes of '94 and '05.

If Blues coach Brad Fittler can harness that for game three then NSW are a long way towards joining the elite club.

The Blues were too good across the park last week - their forward pack was on top, halfback Nathan Cleary's kicking game was on song and their outside backs were too clinical.

"It's always a tougher assignment when you have to go to Queensland to play, but it's been done before," Stuart said.

"And the both times we've had to do it it was a situation where we had a lot of confidence in our team.

"The more confidence you've got in your team the quieter you can keep the Queensland passionate supporters.

"I'm sure after that game two, I think we corrected a lot of wrongs from game one and I feel as though that team can get a lot of belief out of their performance.

"They were very dominant and that's a key element when you're going into a tough environment such as playing at Suncorp in front of their home crowd.

"You need to be confident and you need to have self belief if you're going to be a successful football team.

"I believe that game two this year, used properly, can most definitely give us that leading into game three."

MORE ORIGIN NEWS

Stuart saw some similarities between the Blues' defensive effort last week and that of his '05 team.

NSW flew out of the blocks at Sydney Olympic Stadium on Wednesday to put on some massive hits, with Blues lock Jake Trbojevic producing some especially brutal tackles.

It also led to Queensland losing star five-eighth Cameron Munster in just the third minute of the game after he slammed his head into the turf.

Stuart also felt Cleary was a key in the Origin II win last week.

Cleary had received plenty of criticism in the lead-up to the game due to a perceived lack of attacking flair.

But he turned that around off the back of his pinpoint kicking game.

The Penrith No.7 finished with two try assists, three linebreak assists and a linebreak as well.

"Nathan Cleary performed at an Origin level in game two and it goes to show how much of an input you need from your key positions," Stuart said.

"When we won the series in '05 I still remember how strong our defence was and on Wednesday night I thought our defence really gave us a really good platform for our attack.

"We were very aggressive in our defensive attitude on Wednesday night and it's something that we really worked hard upon when I coached in 2005 in regards to being that tough, defensive team."

Origin looks set to return to its usual mid-season spot following bad television ratings.

Stuart felt it was the right call and was what's best for the players.

It was only shifted to a post-season position for 2020 due to the chaos caused by the coronavirus, although the NRL were keen to see how it went.

If it had've been a hit with the fans then they would have considered keeping it after the NRL finals.

"I think it's fair on the players," Stuart said.

"I think a season with Origin now on the back end of the season it makes the season too long for the representative players.

"I believe having it mid-season and having byes around it is the best way to go from a broadcasting point of view too.

"But smarter people make those decisions, I'm only a footy coach."

STATE OF ORIGIN III

Wednesday: Queensland Maroons v NSW Blues at Lang Park, 8.10pm.