Pain of defeat is Blues biggest motivation - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Pain of defeat is Blues biggest motivation

By Ian McCullough 10/06/2011 04:08:42 PM Comments (0)

The desperation to be part of the NSW side that finally breaks Queensland's State of Origin dominance is the motivation that burns inside the Blues players.

NSW were humiliated 3-0 last year as the mighty Maroons cruised to a record fifth straight series success, but Greg Bird and Kurt Gidley revealed it's the pain of defeat that has the team focused on victory at ANZ Stadium next week.

Gold Coast star Bird said he expected plenty of abuse from Queensland great Chris "Choppy' Close, who works for the Titans, should the Blues lose, and called on fans to help turn the Olympic stadium into a fortress once again.

"I've known nothing in my Origin career but defeat, to be honest we've all had enough of it, and now the time is to turn the tide in front of 85,000 New South Welshman," Bird said on Friday.

"A few years ago it was quite hard for Queensland to come down here, but we appear to have lost that dominance and that edge over them in Sydney and we really need to try and get that back."

Bird also believes the side selected by Ricky Stuart has all the ingredients to emulate Queensland's success for the past five seasons.

"There is no reason why these guys can't knuckle down and keep these positions for four or five years," he said.

"There is a fair bit of experience with the guys that have come in, (Anthony) Minichiello, (Luke) Lewis, Gidley, (Anthony) Watmough, they are all seasoned State of Origin players.

"It's the blend that Queensland have had over the last five years and it has helped them with their dominance."

Bird also claimed little time has been spent studying ways to stop Queensland's big three of Darren Lockyer, Johnathan Thurston and Cameron Smith.

"We've all been playing long enough to know you can't let Thurston, Lockyer and Smith run all over us and to be honest, we haven't been focusing on what they do, we watch them week in week out," he said.

"We're more focused on what we are doing as a group instead of worrying about them."

Gidley echoed Bird's sentiments and said NSW's mobile forwards are good enough to counter the threat of Queensland's powerful pack.

"We have a pretty mobile team, we are fast, agile ... and it is a great team, but we need to win this game and draw it up at 1-1," he said.

"They made plenty of metres in game one and that is something we need to get sorted from the start.

"We were so close in game one and there is not a lot between both teams.

"I would like to be part of the team that breaks this cycle, I have played for a few years now and never been part of a winning series and I would love to be part of a NSW team that can change that tide."

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