NSW have vowed to go after Queensland in defence and get physical with the Maroons, adamant they can do so without risking going down to 12 men in the State of Origin decider.
After three weeks of talk about the Blues bullying Queensland in their 38-18 win in Melbourne, Maroons coach Billy Slater distanced himself from talk of all-out retaliation at Suncorp Stadium.
But still, the openings to Wednesday night's decider are expected to be heated, with Blues great Phil Gould predicting the first 20 minutes could be a "tinderbox" situation
It was only two years ago that the last major fight in rugby league broke out, with Dane Gagai landing a flurry of punches on Matt Burton in the 2022 decider.
Both Gagai and Burton ended up in the sin bin, with the Blues furious at the time that they also went down to 12 men when the centre threw punches back.
Gagai will return for his first game back in maroon in Brisbane, while NSW also have firebrands Spencer Leniu and Mitch Barnett on their bench.
The Maroons are yet to have a man sin-binned in this series, while Blues Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was sent off in Origin I and Liam Martin sat down in Origin II.
But regardless, Blues captain Jake Trbojevic said his team would be able to stand up to Queensland without risking going down a man with the automatic sin bin for punching.
"It is definitely a priority to have 13 men on," Trbojevic said.
"So I think it's just about being physical, but you have to do it in a rugby league sense.
"Just go after them defensively, keep them in their own end and and try to win field position.
"But you definitely don't want to be down to 12 men. That doesn't work for us. It doesn't work for anyone."
Blues coach Michael Maguire was also insistent his team had learned from Suaalii's send-off in Origin I, and would not risk going down a man.
"You have to learn form that," he said.
"It's pretty straight-forward. The game has changed, it has shifted. You have to play from where it's at."
Queensland were believed to be unhappy with several plays in game two, including a shove on Reece Walsh when the ball was dead, a hair-pull on Jaydn Su'A and a Stephen Crichton grapple tackle on Daly Cherry-Evans.
But Slater maintained the emphasis had been on cleaning up the team's discipline after Melbourne.
"We need to get our footy on early. We missed that in game two," Slater said.
"We had 30 per cent of the football in the first half. Our discipline wasn't up to scratch. The penalty count was 6-0 after 30 minutes.
"If you give the opposition that at this level, you're going to be fatigued. It's a tough enough game to go without fatigue.
"Footy is really important at the start. You can't be ill-disciplined and make mistakes and give away penalties. It's about playing footy."
The comments came after former Blues coach Gould predicted early fireworks.
"Right from the beginning of Origin and throughout the decades Origin football has been a kill-or-be-killed mentality," Gould said on the Nine Network's 100% Footy.
"It has been an attitude of 'retaliate first'. Don't wait to get hit, get in first.
"Queensland will be determined not to lose it in the first 20 minutes and NSW won't want to give up the ascendancy ... It is going to be a tinderbox up there."
