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Queensland Maroons

Queensland Maroons
Nicknames Maroons
Cane Toads
Governing body Queensland Rugby League
Head coach Kevin Walters
Captain Cameron Smith
Most caps Cameron Smith (39)
Top try-scorer Greg Inglis (18)
Top point-scorer Johnathan Thurston (214)
Home stadium Suncorp Stadium (52,500)
First game
Queensland colours.svg Queensland 34–12 New Zealand New Zealand Kiwis colours.svg
(Brisbane Exhibition Ground, Brisbane; 16 May 1908)
First State of Origin game
Queensland colours.svg Queensland 20–10 New South Wales New South Wales colours.svg
(Lang Park, Brisbane; 8 July 1980)
Biggest win
Queensland colours.svg Queensland 52–6 New South Wales New South Wales colours.svg
(Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane; 8 July 2015)
Biggest defeat
New South Wales colours.svg New South Wales 56–16 Queensland Queensland colours.svg
(Stadium Australia, Sydney; 7 June 2000)

The Queensland rugby league team has represented the Australian state of Queensland in rugby league football since the sport's beginnings there in 1908. Nicknamed the "Maroons" after the colour of their jersey, the team plays three times a year against arch-rivals New South Wales in the State of Origin series. Captained by Cameron Smith and coached by Kevin Walters, Queensland, the team is administered by the Queensland Rugby League and plays all of its home matches at Brisbane's Lang Park (now known as Suncorp Stadium).

Since 1908 a Queensland representative rugby league team had been assembled from players based in the state to compete annually against New South Wales. The team used to play matches against other high-profile foreign and domestic touring teams, but has not played anyone other than New South Wales in several decades. From 1980 onwards, when Queensland was first allowed to select players of local origin even if they were currently at clubs outside its borders, the team's success rate against New South Wales improved dramatically. Until 1987 clubs from both the Brisbane Rugby League and the NSWRL provided players for the side. Maroons players have been chosen exclusively from clubs in the National Rugby League since Game III 2001 when Allan Langer was selected from Europe's Super League. Recently the team achieved a record-breaking eight successive State of Origin victories from 2006 to 2013.

Queensland had already been playing in their maroon jerseys each year against New South Wales in their sky blue before the split in rugby football between union and league took place. Queensland's captain, Mike Dore, left the rugby union establishment to play the new Northern Union brand of football in 1907 and his decision to switch codes influenced many other Queensland union players including his brother, to join the rugby league ranks. The first Queensland rugby league team ever formed, like the first New South Wales and Australian teams ever formed, was for playing the ground-breaking 1907-08 New Zealand rugby tourists, and was as follows:


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