Champion NSW and Australian halfback Ricky Stuart often talks about how “the halfback owns the result”.

As one of the best playmakers NSW has every produced Stuart knows what it takes to dominate at State of Origin level.

Last night in State of Origin II, Blues halfback Mitchell Moses was channelling Stuart’s kicking and passing game and Joey Johns’ defence as Michael Maguire’s NSW team took a blowtorch to Queensland’s glass house.

Of course Moses can’t submit an 11/10 performance without a forward pack and a back five who were unrelenting in dominating possession and field position in the opening half.

But this was undoubtedly the best game of Mitchell Moses’s career from his all-round kicking game to his want to dig into the Maroons line to playing square to the try-assists to the most impressive thing – his defence.

The Eighth Immortal Andrew Johns was a noted strong defender who would often pick backrowers up and then sit them down.

Nathan Clearly is similar in that he’s a big frame for a playmaker and a robust defender.

Moses has never been noted for being able to force momentum shifts through his defence but last night at the MCG he did it multiple times.

The Payne Haas critics can pipe down now. Surprise, surprise it was a Queenslander in Brent Read who questioned Haas’s Origin credentials but the Blues front rower issued his receipt in Origin II.

The biggest challenge for NSW now is avoiding reading their own press and getting too carried away in the demolition 34-0 halftime score line because when you strip it all back the series is simply level at 1-1.

It means nothing if the Blues don’t go to the graveyard of Suncorp Stadium in three weeks time and become only the third NSW side in history to win a decider on the Maroons home soil.

As clinically dominant as NSW were what could go wrong did go wrong for Queensland.

And as much as coach Billy Slater was flat batting questions about changes for the Origin III decider there’s no question the Maroons will need to shake up the formula.

David Fifita, Selwynn Cobbo and Origin specialist Dane Gagai will surely all come into calculations when Slater reviews the NSW ambush in the opening 40 minutes.

The Maroons right edge had a nightmare evening due to the return of Latrell Mitchell and the form of Angus Crichton who has rubber-stamped his papers as the best backrower in the game right now.

Valentine Holmes, Jeremiah Nanai and Queensland captain Daly Cherry-Evans were repeatedly worked over as the presence of Mitchell grabbed hold of the contest from early in the piece.

It wasn’t just the return of Mitch Moses and Latrell Mitchell who turned the Blues form around but also the addition of Cameron Murray in the middle of the field.

Murray’s lighting fast play-the-ball and soft hands with the ball aided the Blues in establishing an early dominance before piling on the scoreboard pressure with an opening half assault.

Fullback Dylan Edwards also underlined how he is purpose built for the State of Origin arena and will own the NSW no.1 jumper for at least the next three years.

The way Edwards runs the ball so direct straightened up the NSW attack and the Blues fullback simply underlined how he’s a player who the bigger the stage, the better he goes.

Give us a break with the Liam Martin sin bin. What a gee up. Sin binned in an Origin game for a face rub. Good grief.