Game 3, 1997 State of Origin
June 25, 1997 · Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney
Game 3, 1997 State of Origin: Queensland 18–12 New South Wales, at Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney on June 25, 1997.
Attendance: 33,241
Dead rubber -- New South Wales had already clinched the series 2-0. A mid-match brawl between the rival hookers (Andrew Johns and Jamie Goddard) saw both sin-binned, Johns requiring stitches. New South Wales made several positional changes from Game II (Trent Barrett debuted at five-eighth, Johns moved to hooker); Queensland also reshuffled (Coyne and O'Neill both to centre, O'Brien to prop, Goddard to hooker, Tierney to prop) -- this full lineup was confirmed via a targeted follow-up cross-checking rugbyleagueproject.org's box score against individual player bio pages, after an initial pass could only confirm partial changes-from-Game-II rather than a complete sheet. Queensland's own player-of-the-series award for 1997 (era-name 'Wally Lewis Medal,' now retrospectively the Ron McAuliffe Medal) went to Robbie O'Davis.
Scorers
| Queensland | Tries: Ikin; O'Neill; Coyne Goals: O'Neill (3/3) Sin bin: Goddard (second half, exact minute unconfirmed) |
| New South Wales | Tries: Ainscough; Johns Goals: Johns/Simon (2/2 combined, exact per-kicker split not confirmed) Sin bin: Johns (second half, exact minute unconfirmed) |
Teams
| Queensland | New South Wales | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robbie O'Davis | Fullback | Tim Brasher | 1 |
| 2 | Brett Dallas | Wing | Ken McGuinness | 2 |
| 3 | Mark Coyne | Centre | Jamie Ainscough | 3 |
| 4 | Julian O'Neill | Centre | Terry Hill | 4 |
| 5 | Matt Sing | Wing | Matt Seers | 5 |
| 6 | Ben Ikin | Five-eighth | Trent Barrett | 6 |
| 7 | Adrian Lam | Halfback | Geoff Toovey | 7 |
| 8 | Clinton O'Brien | Prop | Mark Carroll | 8 |
| 9 | Jamie Goddard | Hooker | Andrew Johns | 9 |
| 10 | Neil Tierney | Prop | Paul Harragon | 10 |
| 11 | Gary Larson | Second Row | Adam Muir | 11 |
| 12 | Jason Smith | Second Row | Steve Menzies | 12 |
| 13 | Billy Moore | Lock | Nik Kosef | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Stuart Kelly | David Fairleigh | 14 | |
| 15 | Jeremy Schloss | Dean Pay | 15 | |
| 16 | Craig Smith | John Simon | 16 | |
| 17 | Wayne Bartrim | Michael Buettner | 17 | |
| Paul Vautin | Coach | Tom Raudonikis | ||
Player of the Match
Ben Ikin (Queensland)
Match officials
| Referee | Eddie Ward |
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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