Queensland’s legendary skipper Cameron Smith has hinted that a blitzkrieg early in Game II is part of the gameplan to then win the game late for the Maroons.

“We just need to start better than we did in Game Two last year. New South Wales came out with a very aggressive mindset and they played with a lot of intensity and I think they caught us on the hop to be honest,” Smith said.

“Maybe we went out there knowing we were 1-0 up and if we didn’t win that one there was still an opportunity to go back to Brisbane but this time around it’s totally different.

“We spoke about this the first day we got into camp, about our mental preparation. Everyone is going to be OK physically and ready to go but our mental preparation is key for this game.

“We want to make sure we start well and hopefully make it a lot easier in the back-end of the game.”