Brad Fittler picked a tough, in-form forward pack for a reason and now the NSW coach is turning to them to deliver.
Fittler's Blues arrived in Melbourne on Sunday to finalise their preparations for Wednesday's State of Origin series opener, and they did so primed for battle.
So much of the focus on the Blues over the past week has been on their pacy back five: The backline that's arguably the quickest to enter the Origin arena but has so many questions surrounding their defence.
Blues players have made no secret of their desire to make use of their pace. But Fittler knows all that will come to nothing if his middle men can't make a statement.
"A lot of things have got to go right for our outside backs to get ball do all that," Fittler told AAP.
"You need to win in there. It's as simple as that. I think we've picked a lot of tough people. We've got enough tough people in there to take a bit of ownership."
"That's where all our experience is. We've only got one non-rookie in the back but we've got four forwards that have been here before."
There's little argument that Fittler has picked the right men to execute it in the middle.
An analysis of Fox Sports Stats from the opening three months of the season shows that NSW players are outdoing the Maroons in almost every key forwards category.
The Blues' pack has averaged a combined extra 177 metres per game over their Queensland counterparts this year (stats include bench players other than utilities Tyrone Peachey and Michael Morgan).
They're also making an extra 0.6 metres per run on their Maroons counterparts, break through an extra 3.6 tackles and provide 2.5 more offloads.
Queensland have them slightly in terms of tackle efficiency - an average of 90.1 per cent compared to 89.67 - but surprisingly only have one extra Origin game of experience up their sleeve across the pack despite the Blues' host of rookies.
Fittler is counting on both their form and the fact a number of their debutants up front have either played for Australia or are in the prime of their career in their mid or late twenties.
"The whole idea was last year reputations haven't worked for us. So they're all in form," Fittler said.
"Some of them, form came a bit later than others. Some of them started the season unbelievably and made sure they held on. All different things but they're all going good."
The Blues have just one more session left before Wednesday's clash.
They trained at the SCG on Sunday in a bid to familiarise themselves with an oval field, before flying to a fan day in Melbourne.
They'll have Monday off before returning to training for their closed-doors captain's run on the MCG on Tuesday.
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