The 2002 State of Origin decider featured a controversial finish that led to a rule change the following year, in a game otherwise best remembered for some fireworks from The Raging Bull, Gorden Tallis.
The most-replayed moment from this game happened very early in the match, when Tallis dragged rookie Blues fullback Brett Hodgson across field and into touch before much later delivering a verbal volley for the ages to a group of Blues fans who had made a sign insulting Tallis's mother.
None of that can take away from one of the most pulsating finishes in Origin history, in which brilliant plays and awful mistakes in equal measure had as big a say on the final result.
Out for revenge
With NSW devastating the Maroons with a record-breaking clean sweep in 2000, a completely revamped Queensland hit back to win in 2001.
Hodgson produced arguably Origin's greatest debut in a huge game-one win in 2002, before Queensland hit back to level the series in Brisbane.
Careers were on the line in the decider, with several changes of lead before the Blues looked to have wrapped up the series when Jason Moodie crossed in the 75th minute with Andrew Johns converting from touch to make it 18-14.
But the Maroons got the ball back from a short restart and one set later, a wide-running Dane Carlaw galloped over the top of Moodie and there was little Hodgson could do to impede the rampaging forward's 40-metre run to the line.
Lote Tuqiri, who had a horror night with the boot, missed his third goal from four attempts to leave the match drawn at 18-all and the 2001 winners retaining the shield. The Queensland bench was in raptures while the Blues bench was the opposite, despite the teams being level after 240 minutes of Origin footy.
"It was a very hollow feeling," Hodgson tells NRL.com.
"We knew we'd lost it [the shield] based on the fact it was a draw so we were heartbroken. You try so hard in the three games through the series so to lose it in the way we did, you can't explain that feeling. It's really not a good feeling.
"It would have been good to get a result either way but it was one of those things that sting at the time but you have to grin and bear it."
Petero Civoniceva, one of 10 Maroons debutants in 2001, said even after Carlaw had scored, the players were unsure about whether they needed the conversion to go over.
"There was actually a bit of confusion on the field," Civoniceva says.
"I remember after Dane had scored, the trainers were running out saying the draw was going to be enough because up to that point we were thinking that was it, it was going to be a drawn game.
"Knowing the draw was going to be enough, I remember seeing the smiles across the bench, everyone was jumping up and down and understanding that was going to be enough for us to retain the series."
Blues captain Andrew Johns was vocal in the media in the lead-up to the game that the drawn series in 1999 – when Queensland had also retained the shield having won in 1998 – could not be repeated.
His words were heeded too late to help the Blues in '02 but golden point was introduced in 2003 despite opposition from the QRL, with a widespread feeling that a drawn series cannot be allowed to happen again in Origin.
The Blues were the first to benefit from the new rule when a memorable Shaun Timmins field goal stole a win in game one of 2004.
Controversy galore
The finish to 2002 was far from the only controversial moment. There was confusion over whether a sign from a section of NSW supporters declaring "Gordie… ya mum's a rig" originally said "pig", with winger Lote Tuqiri years later claiming responsibility for the confusion in an attempt to fire Tallis up.
"I've looked over to my left and in the bottom corner I've seen this sign in the crowd. Gordie didn't actually see it, so I said, "Gordie, come have a look at this"," Tuqiri wrote in Rugby League Week in 2012.
"They took it down at just the wrong time but he caught the gist of it before it disappeared. It said, 'Gordie, your mum's a rig', but I actually said to him, knowing full well it would pump him up, 'Mate, it says, 'Your mum's a pig'."
The teenager responsible later insisted 'rig' meant 'a dominant person' and was intended as a compliment.
Take that one with a grain of salt but there is no doubt about the effect it had on Tallis, who directed an emotion-charged and expletive-laden barrage at that section of the crowd after Carlaw scored.
"Game three, there was a lot on the line, a lot of talk from both camps leading into the game," Civoniceva recalls.
"Gorden, who was our skipper at the time, that tackle he did on Brett Hodgson was pretty well noted and there were elements of the game that probably stirred the big fella up.
"There was a sign up in the crowd that he took offence to which riled the big fella up, the Raging Bull, it was a tremendous captain's knock from him, he was a man inspired.
"For all of us, we'd had the success of the year before and there was so much to play for and that finish was inspiration."
Hodgson's lament
Any short highlights package of the game will be bookended by Hodgson getting tossed into touch by Tallis early on then brushed off by Carlaw at the end.
It's a grand injustice because the little Eels custodian was not only coming off the arena's greatest ever debut, he had a towering series and was immense throughout the decider, constantly pushing up in support and finding seemingly every kick on the full to frequently take pressure off his side in a relentless performance belying his relative lack of experience at the time.
"At that stage, I didn't think I deserved to be at that level, it was a bit like 'what am I doing here, I'm still a young kid learning my trade as a fullback'," he says.
"To play alongside some of those guys, the way they commanded those sessions and Phil Gould was the coach, the way all of it ran was such a level of professionalism and you could see why Johns, Danny Buderus, Steve Menzies were at the level they were at. I was just soaking it all in.
"My game was built around support up the middle third of the field. I used to really challenge myself that when you play the best players, to be the best I could be in my role.
"Making sure that Lockyer found the ground on his kicks as few times as possible and being in a position I could at least be involved and try and have everyone else in the team have confidence in me bringing the ball back, be an option supporting then play off the back of Johns and Buderus.
"For me to get a chance to do that, even now I still pinch myself how lucky I was to do that."
Of the Tallis tackle, Hodgson laughed that he could have done with the skin-tight, collar-less jerseys recently introduced by Blues coach Brad Fittler.
"It obviously happened and you have to take the good and the bad in every facet of whatever you do, whether it's rugby league or in life," he said.
"It was one of those iconic moments in Origin, you just have to accept that's what it was."
As big a play as it seemed at the time, it came barely 10 minutes into the game and Queensland handed the ball over soon after.
Of more consequence was the pulsating second half and final 15 minutes in particular. A dubious Timana Tahu put-down in the corner was ruled by the video referee – probably correctly – to have been dropped over the line.
Shortly after, a miraculous but questionable Darren Lockyer put-down just inside the dead-ball line was also given the red light, to the fury of the Maroons bench.
With the match in the balance at 14-12 to Queensland from the time of Shane Webcke's powerful 59th-minute try until Moodie went over 15 minutes later, both teams threatened to lose the game for themselves with an avalanche of errors.
The likes of Johns, Nathan Hindmarsh, Luke Bailey and Menzies produced clanging handling errors for the Blues while the try-scorer Webcke dropped it cold twice himself. Each side had chances to put their opposition away and failed.
"It was a high pressure time in the game, for both sides the pressure got to both teams," Civoniceva says.
"There were a number of mistakes with that inability to put the icing on the cake. NSW had the likes of Andrew Johns pulling the strings for what was a tremendous NSW side so it looked like they'd got the job done but again the champion teams always rally and find a way to claw their way back into the game and I think we did that. It was a fitting end to a very tense Origin series.
"It was all on the line for both sides. Queensland wanted to turn a new page in their Origin story, NSW wanted to right the wrongs from the year before, some very tense moments and we did enough to get the draw."
Hodgson says he doesn't recall too many specific moments from the latter stages, but does remember the emotion.
"It's not like a club game or a finals game, you understand the enormity of what the result means for history and for the state," he says.
"There is such a high element of pressure in Origin footy, it's why it's the spectacle it is.
"The players feel it, the fans feel it. Queensland always gathered for their comeback wins, you can never ever relax in that arena.
"We were talking about what we had to do, there wasn't a drop off in any of that but unfortunately what happened at the end there resulted in them retaining the series."