Best Ever Maroons?

THEY are the unstoppable Maroons machine.

They created history by providing Australia’s first all-Queensland backline in this year’s Test against New Zealand.

They etched their names further into the history books by becoming the first team in State of Origin history to win four series in a row.

But are Mal Meninga’s Maroons the greatest Queensland Origin team ever?

The 1989 Queensland team is generally regarded as the best to have worn the Maroon jersey into Origin battle.

Boasting a backline made up of Belcher, Hancock, Currie, Meninga, McIndoe, Lewis and Langer for the first two games of the series, and including Shearer (in for the injured Meninga) and Michael Hagan (in for the injured Langer), the Maroon backs were unstoppable.

And up front, an engine room that included names like Bella, Backo, Kerrod Walters, Gillmeister, Miles, Vautin, Lindner, Stains and Gary Coyne provided the perfect mix of power, passion and finesse.

The result in Game II, where the current Maroons had to overcome injury and adversity to win in Sydney, mirrored the heroics of their 1989 counterparts when they triumphed despite a crippling injury toll meaning they had to get home on the back of pure courage.

The most recent win even led ’89 alumni Mal Meninga and Paul Vautin to laud it as Queensland’s best Origin win.

Gary Belcher, the Queensland fullback in Queensland’s previous golden era of series wins from 1987 to 1989, says he never thought the ’89 Maroons would ever be matches – but the current crop have made him think again.

So how does this year's backline stack-up against our best from 20 years ago?

"Oh, gee, that is a tough one to answer,'' Belcher, now a respected commentator with Fox Sports, told fogs.com.au.

"I mean, it is tough enough comparing players from different eras, but an entire team?

"I think you can absolutely say that the current team is a truly special combination. But does that make them better than the ‘89 team?

"With 89, you were starting with Wally Lewis and Allan Langer in the halves, and you really can't get any better than that. Then, right across the backline, I think every player there was probably in the best form of their career.

"But then, you compare that to the current bunch, and you're starting with Darren Lockyer and Johnathan Thurston, and in years to come, we will be sitting back talking about how great they were.

"We had Tony Currie, who was in such red-hot form that Peter Sterling described him at the time as the best player in the world. The current mob has Inglis and Folau, who are just freaks of nature.''

While Belcher is happy to sit on the fence with his judgement, he concedes the sheer weight of results could see the title of best ever tip in favour of the current crop if they can manage the one achievement to elude them – a series clean-sweep – when they take on the Blues at Suncorp Stadium on July 15.

"One thing we never did was become the Australian Test backline from one to seven, and they have done that,” Belcher said.

"But one thing we did was win eight games in a row (including two series whitewashes), which they haven't. So each one has their own slice of history.

"But if they can go through this series undefeated, after already winning four series in a row, I think they will legitimately lay claims to the title.''