Maroons forwards ready to fight back from 0-1 down

Maroons forwards Jarrod Wallace and Josh McGuire are not relying on history repeating in Origin II on Sunday night but they are confident they can follow in the footsteps of the 2017 side in overcoming a 1-0 deficit to win the series.

Queensland were staring down the barrel of defeat when they trailed 16-6 at half-time in the second match of last year's Holden State of Origin series in Sydney after being thumped 28-4 in the series opener.

But they scored 12 unanswered points to win Origin II and then the Kevin Walters-coached side backed that up with a 22-6 victory in the series finale at Suncorp Stadium.

"Kevvie had a normal half-time speech and I remember everyone looking at each other and thinking 'this is what we have to do, this is do or die now' after losing game one," Wallace said.

"We just didn't want that to happen. And it showed in how we upped the tempo in the second half."

McGuire said it was again up to the 17 players who run out onto ANZ Stadium in a maroon jersey to be the masters of their own destiny.

"It's a different year, last year doesn't count for anything now. It would be different if it's the same group of guys but pretty much it's a new group," he said.

"The reality is we are 1-0 down in the series again - we lose the game, we lose the series. We have to go down there with the want and desire to get the result.

"The good thing about footy is small changes can make big differences. That's what we learned from last year I suppose."