Incredulous Queensland coach Ewen McKenzie could only marvel at Quade Cooper's freakish big-stage abilities as he piloted the Reds into a Super Rugby home decider on Saturday night.

Cooper produced a host of magic moments in a man-of-the-match display for the Reds to overwhelm the Blues 30-13 in a pulsating semi-final at Suncorp Stadium.

The Wallabies playmaker was at his mesmerising best, setting up three of Queensland's four tries, while blazing winger Rod Davies became the first Reds player in Super Rugby history to bag a hat-trick.

It was the one try Davies did not score, a bewildering 30th-minute five-pointer to centre Ben Tapuai, that highlighted Cooper's brilliance to the delight of an enthralled Brisbane crowd of 44,940.

In a scintillating sideline run, Cooper stepped and fended off winger Lachie Munro and also dummied past Charlie Faumuina and Luke McAlister before producing a one-arm off-load in contact for Tapuai to cross for a 12-0 lead.

McKenzie admitted he even found it hard to believe Cooper's freakish skill.

"I'm not going to take any coaching credit for that," McKenzie said. "That was just pure Quade.

"I'm still working out how he set up Tapuai's try.

"I said it during the week, the bigger the stage the more he likes it."

Queensland's first-ever play-off victory ensured the Reds, bottom three cellar-dwellers from 2004-09, will host the first decider in Australia since the Brumbies won the title in Canberra in 2004.

Their fairytale run under McKenzie will continue next Saturday night when they play the winner of the Stormers-Crusaders semi-final played in Cape Town (Sunday morning AEST).

"From the effort we've seen this group put in after coming through the darker days ... and see how we've come back to now host a grand final is a massive achievement, but the last hurdle is the hardest one," skipper James Horwill said.

As good as Cooper was in attack, and also defence, the five-eighth was not happy about missing four of his first six goal kicks when the Blues closed to 15-10 and then 20-13 early in the second half.

A huge rib-rattling tackle on Stephen Brett to shut down a Blues counter-attacking raid was a "massive turning point", according to Blues coach Pat Lam, as it then allowed Davies to scream over from a Cooper cut-out pass.

The Aucklanders also shot themselves in the foot in the 58th minute when fullback Jared Payne ripped out a chip kick near his goal line that Ioane pounced on before Davies crossed in the other corner for his hat-trick.

Payne was again the villain for the visitors by dropping a pass to bomb a try when down 27-13 with 10 minutes to play.

Although their strong lineout was surprisingly off, Queensland were the far more efficient team in the first half and looked to have the game in their control when the halftime hooter sounded at 15-0.

But Blues lock Chris Lowrey punished some uncharacteristic lazy defence off the last play to stroll over next to the posts and turn the momentum.

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