The veteran prop Civoniceva was back to his best on Wednesday night, racking up impressive statistics with trademark charges as he played a big role in ensuring his captain's fairytale ending.
Should he saddle up again next year at age 36 - which, given his remarkable ability to produce compelling form, is quite possible - then Queensland will seek to make it seven series wins in a row to send another Origin legend out in style.
Civoniceva remained typically understated about his 2012 Origin prospects.
"I'll just wait and see. I know we've got some great young forwards coming through and that the finish line is fast approaching for me," he said.
"I know I'm getting close to handing over the baton to Matty and Sam (Thaiday) and the next group of forwards coming through.
Thaiday is betting Civoniceva will be back in the Origin arena.
"He's like an old bottle of red wine. He gets better with age," Thaiday said.
"I'm sure he'll put his hand up next year to play.
"I think you'll pretty much have to kill him to stop him from playing footy.
"He'll just go forever."
Civoniceva and front-row cohort Matt Scott laid the platform on which Queensland shocked the Blues in the first half of its 34-24 series-clinching win in front of a record-equalling 52,489 fans at Lang Park.
The pair spent a week in camp with coach Mal Meninga analysing their performance from the Origin II loss in Sydney when makeshift Blues front rower and skipper Paul Gallen produced one of the great 80 minutes of Origin.
"Scotty and I were both honest with each other and we both knew we were down on our performance in Sydney," Civoniceva said.
"We spoke about what we needed to get done. It was a big challenge for us because we probably let ourselves down in game two.
"We're explosive runners of the ball and that's the way we had to play."
Civoniceva's mind-blowing 125 metres gained in 25 minutes of the first half went a long way towards Queensland bolting out to a 24-0 lead.
"We weren't aggressive enough in Sydney," he said.
"We thought we'd have to grind it out and, for both Matty and I as front rowers, our (natural) game is running as hard as possible and trying to cause as much damage as we can.
"We got back to that. We did it in the first game and we had to get back to it and I thought we worked in tandem on either side of the ruck."
Civoniceva says the victory on such a special night sits "high" among his 30 Origin appearances.
"I've just been so lucky and blessed to be part of this great team and to have the success we've had .... it's stuff you dream of as a kid," he said.
- AAP
Tags: sport, rugby-league, nrl, state-of-origin, brisbane-4000 First posted July 7, 2011 15:47:00
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