After 20 minutes, the result was a foregone conclusion – until it wasn’t

May 27, 2026 — 11:08pm

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Bloody hell. Talk about the great escape!

After 20 minutes, the result of this match was so obvious there was little point watching the rest.

Queensland coach Billy Slater looked like the cat that swallowed the canary.

Blues coach Laurie Daley looked like the canary in the coalmine, just mauled by the cat.

And how could they not look like that?

For what different scenes they saw as they gazed out from their respective coaches’ boxes on Wednesday night.

Slater was soaking up the vision of a Queensland team that was ever and always operating at a level somewhere between imperious and imperial – but always singly kingly. They were born to rule, and rule they did. Everything they tried worked. Every sleight of hand and foot came up trumps. The green field was simply a flood of maroon jerseys flooding forward engulfing Blue traffic-cones.

And what did Laurie Daley see? He saw a team whose........

© The Age