If Queensland had lost four straight State of Origin rugby league series, critics would be saying the concept was in big trouble.

The one-time endless supply of NSW star power would finally have rendered the series predictable after years of being stunned by the underdog Maroons.

Origin was said to be in strife when Queensland went into the 2006 series having lost the previous three.

NSW players used to have to concede each year: "We're always the favourites."

But Origin hasn't turned out like that.

Not since Darren Lockyer grabbed a wayward pass from Brett Hodgson to snatch the 2006 decider in Melbourne and change everything.

It's NSW who have lost an unprecedented four series in a row and the Blues' talent machine that produced greats like Mortimer, Kenny, Daley, Roach, Harragon, Clyde, Johns, Fittler, Kennedy and Gasnier has recently only spat out Jarryd Hayne.

The axis has turned so far, Queensland are now chock-full of the game's elite while NSW scratch for a side that can contain them.

Far from picking themselves, Blues selections have been hotly debated since their last series victory in 2005 - significantly also the last played by Andrew Johns, the greatest NSW Origin player of them all.

Last year's image of NSW second-rower Ben Creagh back-pedalling after giving Justin Hodges a shove seemed to say so much about where the once cocky Blues are at.

"At the time I was playing we were dominating, we had blokes like Freddy (Brad) Fittler and Andrew Johns in our side," dual international Timana Tahu said this week after being picked for his first Origin series since 2006 on return from rugby.

"It was shattering watching it the last (few) years, losing the series."

This year there'll be an 11th halves pairing since Johns' farewell in steady veteran Brett Kimmorley and makeshift five-eighth Jamie Lyon.

Just when they thought they may finally have produced an heir to Johns in Mitchell Pearce, the Sydney Roosters No.7 went down with injury.

They haven't produced a champion No.6 since Fittler.

NSW lack a dominant front-rower while Queensland have three, although two of them - Steve Price and Ben Hannant - are injured.

Those injuries don't seem to matter though because, in the stellar talent production stakes, Queensland are the new NSW.

Lose Price, Hannant, Dallas Johnson, Michael Crocker, Justin Hodges and Karmichael Hunt and replace them with Cooper Cronk, David Shillington, Ashley Harrison, Dave Taylor, Willie Tonga and Matt Scott.

Even the great Lockyer, in his last series, has Scott Prince shadowing him in the wings.

So can NSW become the new Queensland, the perennial underdogs with enough spirit, camaraderie and desire to unsettle the game's superstars?

Can they, like a chunky, balding Wynnum-Manly five-eighth called Wally Lewis, leave the game's biggest name's bewildered with their ability to step up and produce on the game's biggest stage?

Do they have the new Mal Meninga in Jamal Idris?

At $2.20 to win the series, to Queensland's $1.65, they'll definitely claim the underdogs tag this time.

They're not breaking camp to help their bonding and, decades after the Maroons, they're finally getting their Former Origin Greats involved.

They don't have an equivalent to the old Lang Park but can take comfort in the fact that two of the three games will be played at Sydney's ANZ Stadium, where their record against Queensland is 11-1-3.

And despite the four series losses, there's still only three games - Queensland lead 44-41 - out of the 87 played between them.

Blues captain Kurt Gidley is adamant a team effort can overcome Queensland's team of stars.

"Hopefully it doesn't just come down to an X-factor to produce some points, hopefully it's the way we're playing as a team that gets us the points on the night," he said.

The last word, though, should go to Tahu, hungry after being starved of ball for two years in rugby union and the most likely to walk down the ANZ Stadium tunnel yelling "New South Welshman".

"Queenslanders think it's just their game but, for us, we take pride in our jerseys," he said.

"For me this is probably the pinnacle of rugby league and, as a kid, watching it on TV getting the goose bumps and shivers up my spine.

"I still get it putting on a Blues jersey."

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