Queensland coach Mal Meninga has hailed his side's historic victory over NSW as the most satisfying of his distinguished career.
The Maroons, who entered the clash with five players suffering the effects of a stomach bug, were reduced to 16 men when star centre Greg Inglis sustained a broken jaw in the 22nd minute after a Trent Barrett high shot.
Their predicament worsened when key forwards Ben Hannant (knee) and Ashley Harrison (ribs) also suffered injuries to leave them without a single player on the bench midway through the second half.
Meninga said his players' ability to handle adversity makes their record fourth-consecutive series victory even sweeter.
"(It was a) courageous win and once again from a magnificent bunch of men who believe in each other and keep on coming up with the right decisions - it's fantastic to be a Queenslander tonight," a delighted Meninga said.
"I was sitting there watching these blokes just keep on coming up with the right efforts."
"I was saying to (assistant coach) Neil (Henry), 'these blokes will do anything to win footy games and these blokes will do anything to not let their team-mates down', and they just keep on proving it."
"That's why we've got four in a row, it's a collective effort, they believe in the team and they believe in each other ... I can't speak highly enough of them."
Meninga was a member of the Queensland side which defied the odds and a massive injury toll to beat NSW at the SFS in 1989.
That game has long been considered the benchmark for courage and perseverance but Meninga believes Wednesday's effort may have surpassed that.
"That's gone down in folklore so I would imagine today's game will go down in folklore of Origin history as well," he said.
"We had nobody on the bench at one stage but such in the nature of this footy side where they just keep hanging in there and they keep making the right decisions."
"And all of a sudden we're down the other end towards the end of the footy game and we came up with the result that NSW couldn't."
"That speaks volumes for them doesn't it?"
Queensland captain Darren Lockyer, a veteran of 29 Origin appearances and one of the players struck down by the 24-hour virus which threatened to derail the Maroons' tilt at history, echoed his coach's sentiments.
"They've made history now," he said of his team-mates.
"There's a team there obviously that's obviously got a lot of skill and a lot of talent but that's not what wins us the games, it's the character that we've shown."
"I haven't played in Queensland teams with more character than this one."
A bitterly disappointed NSW coach Craig Bellamy refused to blame his side's injury plagued preparation but conceded they presented the Maroons the victory with a string of unforced errors.
"I don't want to take too much away from Queensland, in the second half we had them under a lot of pressure there and they didn't buckle," he said.
"You could probably say that (we lost the game rather than they won it), but what I will say those first three tries are probably the softest three tries I've ever seen in Origin - or bordering on if they weren't."
"So that's hugely disappointing."
He added: "I'm disappointed with our performance in some sections of the game."
"In some sections of the game we were outstanding - in some sections we were disappointing."