Reece Walsh was so good for the Maroons in the opening two games of the 2023 State of Origin series that he didn't need to play in Wednesday evening's dead rubber to take out Zero Tackle's MVP award.

The star fullback went into last night's game with the lead on 22 points, and with his closest competition in Daly Cherry-Evans, Valentine Holmes, Reuben Cotter, Lindsay Collins and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow failing to score in the loss for the Maroons, it means Walsh held onto his lead.

Game 3 saw a complete flip on the opening two games that had been dominated by Queensland, with the Blues instead running away during the dead rubber, held in Sydney.

James Tedesco played his best game of the series, and maybe all year, recording 18 out of a possible 20 votes from our four judge panel, who award votes on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis from each game.

Cody Walker was also exceptional after his recall, earning 14 votes in the contest.

Cameron Murray, Bradman Best, Brian To'o, and Josh Addo-Carr were the other Blues players amongst the votes during Game 3, with no Queenslanders featuring in the top five on the field for any of our four judges.

Here are the Game 3 votes

Matt Clements Scott Pryde Dan Nichols Jack Blyth
5 James Tedesco James Tedesco Cody Walker Cody Walker
4 Cameron Murray Cody Walker James Tedesco James Tedesco
3 Bradman Best Cameron Murray Bradman Best Cameron Murray
2 Josh Addo-Carr Bradman Best Brian To'o Bradman Best
1 Brian To'o Brian To'o Cameron Murray Brian To'o

 

And here is the final leaderboard with a breakdown of when votes were scored.

Rank Player State G1 G2 G3 Total
1 Reece Walsh QLD 5 17 22
2 Daly Cherry-Evans QLD 12 7 19
3 James Tedesco NSW 18 18
4 Valentine Holmes QLD 17 17
5 Reuben Cotter QLD 16 16
6 Lindsay Collins QLD 3 12 15
7 Cody Walker NSW 14 14
7 Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow QLD 11 3 14
9 Cameron Murray NSW 11 11
10 Bradman Best NSW 10 10
11 Liam Martin NSW 6 6
12 Brian To'o NSW 5 5
13 Murray Taulagi QLD 3 1 4
14 Brian To'o NSW 2 2
14 Josh Addo-Carr NSW 2 2
14 Payne Haas NSW 2 2
14 Selwyn Cobbo QLD 2 2
18 Cameron Munster QLD 1 1