Mal Meninga started his Maroons State of Origin dynasty with butcher’s paper, followed by some choice words.

“I’ll never, ever forget it, mate. I get goosebumps even talking about it now,” Queensland great Brent Tate said on Fox League special Mighty Maroons.

“In the pre-season (ahead of 2006), Mal got 45 potential players that could have represented Queensland that year and got us to Royal on the Park (Hotel) in Brisbane. We sat in this big room, he put butcher’s paper and pens in front of us and goes, ‘I want you to break up into groups, I want you to go away and write down how you want to be viewed by the Queensland public, on and off the field’. We basically came back with what we call the Queensland Way.

STATE OF ORIGIN II: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW AND START TIME

“The other thing he did is he brought a few of the legends back in like Gilly (Trevor Gillmeister), Alfie (Allan Langer), Kevvie (Walters), those sort of guys, to re-educate us on what it meant to play for Queensland, because he thought we’d lost our way and lost our history.”

Teammate Justin Hodges added: “At the end of all that, he stood up and said, ‘Listen, if youse don’t want to follow this plan, there’s the f***ing door. You’re not gonna play for Queensland ever again’.”

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It was not an idle threat, nor isolated. Not when Meninga was taking over as coach off the back of three consecutive series losses, which had reduced Queensland to a borderline laughing stock.

Meninga picked seven debutants for Origin I and put three senior players on the chopping block. The only thing that saved the Queensland careers of Darren Lockyer, Petero Civoniceva and Steve Price was Lockyer’s miracle match-winning try from an errant Brett Hodgson pass in the series decider, down in Melbourne.

“If we don’t win that game or that series … myself and Petero and Pricey, we were put on notice by Mal,” Lockyer told Wide World of Sports.

“It was Mal’s first year but he said, ‘Look, if results don’t go our way after game one, I’m gonna have to make changes’. If that moment doesn’t happen, our rep careers are totally different, we might not even have played for Queensland again. I would maybe have not played for Australia again. It was a sliding door moment.”

Meninga wasn’t the only one touting big-name scalps. Former Maroons were ripping in and legendary Blues coach Phil Gould wrote in his newspaper column before the series, “It’s time for Queensland to ask Darren to step down from their State of Origin team.

“The Maroons need to think long and hard about the development of their team and I can’t see Lockyer being part of this process.”

Lockyer, still just 29, used the criticism to steel himself, but it was a shaky start to the series and the Maroons elders were lucky that Meninga didn’t strictly follow-up his threat. They lost the opening game 17-16 in Sydney, to a late field goal from last-minute replacement NSW halfback Brett Finch, wearing jersey No.20.

It was a “heartbreaking” loss, Hodges said … though Meninga had a remarkable reaction.

“We got on the bus that night, driving out of the stadium, and I remember Mal having a chat to the group up the front. He goes, ‘Look, we’ll be right’. He just had full confidence in us going back to Suncorp,” Tate recalled.

“He’s like, ‘They think they’re gonna beat us, Tatey — what do you reckon?’ He sort of giggled and I remember thinking, ‘Mate, he’s just got full belief, this bloke. We’re on’.”

Game two in Brisbane was a turning point. Maroons winger Adam Mogg was a surprise two-try hero in a 30-6 win and Hodges scored a runaway four-pointer off an intercept from Blues five-eighth Braith Anasta.

“It was a surreal moment, because I remember the week leading into that I wasn’t even supposed to play, I was still out with my hamstring. But I remember I rang Mal, I said, ‘I’ll be right, just pick me’, because I’d missed game one,” Hodges said.

“I was more worried about tearing my hammy than getting caught! It was a surreal moment, everyone’s going crazy. Then Brett Hodgson came across and I just give him the old point and throw the ball at him.”

Lockyer was man of the match. He had earned a chance to keep his Origin career alive.

Tate added: “I reckon that night was the night that really gave us the belief we could win again. We did a job on them that night at Suncorp and it was almost like, ‘You know what, these blokes aren’t superhuman. We can win’.”

Yet when they were down by 10 points with as many minutes to go in Origin III, the decider at Melbourne’s Docklands stadium, it didn’t seem that they would win. A historic fourth consecutive series victory was within NSW’s grasp.

“I’ll never forget Locky’s leadership that night,” said Tate, who won man of the match.

“Before that series, Petero, Pricey and Locky were all told if we lose the series, we’re gone, never playing again. Locky had the most to lose out of anyone.

“When Eric Grothe scored a try, from a blatant knock-on (off Brett Hodgson after a bomb), the wheels were falling off the team. I was walking behind cursing, swearing, saying, ‘We’ve lost’. But I remember Locky’s leadership, just saying, ‘Mate, we’ve got time. Let’s just kick the ball off, get it back, we’ll win this game’. I remember thinking, ‘Mate, we’re no hope’, and just the belief he had, his leadership and his calmness … and obviously the rest is history.”

Meninga was also unperturbed, recalled Hodges, who had re-torn his hamstring and joined Greg Inglis as an injury absentee.

“So we were sitting up in the box with Mal and it was just weird, though,” Hodges said.

“I still remember the big fella, he was so calm and relaxed. And one think I know about Locky, he’s so cool and calm, he’ll stick to the game plan until there’s no more seconds on the clock.”

Lockyer’s halves partner, a 22-year-old Johnathan Thurston, made a break and put away Tate for a 60m run to the tryline. He dived in, rolled over and slammed down the ball with intent.

“I was only a few weeks back from a series ankle injury too, and that’s my favourite night of footy of all time, that night,” Tate said.

“Just because of what was riding on the series, how we won it. I’ll never, ever forget scoring that try and slamming it down, it was almost like I was saying to the Blues, ‘We’re coming to get ya’. And this moment where we sealed it … it was unbelievable.”

On one hand, Hodgson’s pass was a nightmare piece of play, primarily the fault of the NSW fullback. On the other, Lockyer made the winning try happen.

He pounced on the errant pass from dummy-half and scored because he had a champion’s nose for an opportunity, and the unerring determination to seize it.

“That play there, it changed Origin for us. We go on and do what we do, and for Locky once again just to stick to the game plan, and being Locky, just pushes on everything,” Hodges said.

“If he doesn’t push, if that’s someone else playing five-eighth, we don’t get that and score. But because of who Locky is, he’s pushing.”

Lockyer told Wide World of Sports: “I remember when the ball got passed from dummy-half, I was just going up to apply pressure, to tackle whoever was going to get the ball and hopefully tackle them as they catch it. Then as the ball’s starting to descend, I’m starting to sense … that it’s going to hit the ground.

“That’s when I just accelerated towards it and the footy gods just shone. The bounce was perfect, I got it there and I got through under the posts.

“I do remember big Tunza (Maroons teammate Tonie Carroll), with the big chin, just coming along with a big smile on his face. It was a great moment.”

Queensland 16, NSW 14.

The Maroons prevailed 2-1 to end NSW’s three-year reign and Lockyer claimed the Wally Lewis Medal as player of the series.

The champion Queensland captain extended his Origin career by five years thanks to the win, ultimately retiring with 36 appearances, for 19 wins and nine tries. 2006 began Queensland’s unprecedented run of eight consecutive series victories under Meninga.

And it became a simply incredible year for Lockyer.

He finished with a Golden Boot, the Dally M Five-Eighth and Representative Player of the Year awards, plus a fourth premiership, an Origin series win and a Tri-Nations Test series victory — all as captain.

He scored the match-winning try in the Tri-Nations final against New Zealand. It was arguably Lockyer’s greatest season, when it so nearly became his end as a representative player, and his glittering CV has him marked as a potential Immortal.