Following Queensland’s contentious decision to axe incumbent skipper Daly Cherry-Evans ahead of a must-win game two assignment in Perth, Cameron Munster will be the Maroons’ 16th State of Origin captain.
Here’s the 45-year chronology of the Maroons’ top on-field job.
Arthur Beetson – 1980 (1 match)
‘Big Artie’s’ legacy towers over State of Origin, despite playing just one match as a 35-year-old.
The legendary Beetson – a premiership-winning skipper at Easts and a former Test captain – was a Parramatta reserve grader when he answered the call to arms to captain Queensland in the inaugural Origin match, inspiring a 20-10 triumph at Lang Park that set up the concept’s ongoing success.
Beetson famously clobbered Eels teammate Mick Cronin and wound back the clock in a rampaging performance laced with trademark ball-playing class.
Wally Lewis – 1981-91 (30 matches)
Beetson was set to lead Queensland again in the one-off Origin match in 1981 but instead took on the role of non-playing coach when ruled out by injury.
The job fell to 21-year-old Lewis, the Maroons’ lock the previous year and about to begin his ascent to greatness that would see him named an Immortal and at five-eighth in the ARL Team of the Century.
‘King Wally’ dominated Origin for the next decade, captaining his state a record 30 times – missing just two games with injury during that time – and leading Queensland to series wins in 1982-84, 1987-89 and 1991.
Lewis also captained Australia from 1984-89, losing only three Test matches during that time.
Paul Vautin – 1988, 1990 (2 matches)
Manly’s 1987 premiership-winning captain, ‘Fatty’ Vautin was the choice to deputise for the injured Lewis in the 1988 and ’90 series openers. He was also Lewis’ vice-captain on Australia’s 1989 tour of New Zealand.
But Queensland’s loss in game one of the 1990 series saw the long-serving back-rower controversially axed altogether, ending a 21-game Origin tenure.
Mal Meninga – 1992-94 (9 matches)
Meninga established himself as the heir apparent to the Queensland captaincy after leading Canberra to consecutive premierships in 1989-90 and taking the reins for the 1990 Kangaroo Tour when Lewis was controversially ruled unfit.
‘Big Mal’ oversaw three straight 2-1 series defeats to NSW, retiring with a then-record tally of Origin matches (32) in 1994 – but not before steering the Raiders to another grand final triumph and becoming the first player to skipper two Kangaroo Tour squads.
Trevor Gillmeister – 1995-96 (4 matches)
Gillmeister had been dropped during the 1994 series, but when the Super League war blacklisted the bulk of the likely Queensland squad from selection in 1995 ‘The Axe’ was recalled to lead a ragtag band of rookies, journeymen and reserve graders.
The 31-year-old was inspirational as the Maroons pulled of an astonishing 3-0 cleansweep against a comparatively star-studded Blues side, with Gillmeister famously climbing out of a hospital bed to captain his state in the dead-rubber game three.
Gillmeister debuted for Australia in the subsequent series against New Zealand, but he was again punted by Queensland after captaining a series-opening defeat in 1996.
Allan Langer – 1996, 1998 (5 matches)
‘Alfie’, the linchpin and captain of Brisbane’s 1992-93 premierships, seemed destined for a long tenure as Queensland skipper following Meninga’s retirement before the Super League war intervened.
Langer succeeded the dumped Gillmeister for the last two games of the 3-0 loss to NSW in 1996, before captaining the Queensland Super League Tri-Series side in 1997.
Leading the Maroons to a thrilling 2-1 success in 1998, Langer subsequently became the first player ever to captain a Origin, Test series and grand final victories in the same season. He shocked the rugby league world by retiring before the 1999 series but made a spectacular Origin return in 2001-02.
Adrian Lam – 1997, 1999-2000 (8 matches)
Roosters and Kumuls Test halfback Lam rocketed to stardom as part of Queensland’s unlikely 1995 series triumph, then took over as Maroons skipper for the 2-1 series defeat in 1997 with Super League players again unavailable.
Following incumbent halfback and captain Langer’s abrupt early-1999 retirement, Lam returned to both roles in the Queensland line-up – leading the game one win and historic game three draw that saw the shield remain north of the border.
Lam’s admirable Origin tenure ended in inglorious fashion, as skipper of a harrowing series whitewash loss in 2000.
Kevin Walters – 1999 (1 match)
Often given a rough deal at the Queensland selection table, Walters missed out to Lam for the Origin post in 1999. But he would lead his state in one match – a 12-8 game two loss in Sydney – that year when Lam was out injured.
Walters hung up his representative boots at the end of the season but skippered Brisbane to a dominant premiership success in 2000.
Gorden Tallis – 2001-03 (7 matches)
After becoming just the second player to be sent off in an Origin match in 2000 – for abusing referee Bill Harrigan – Brisbane skipper Tallis took over the captaincy of a new-look Queensland side in 2001 and was inspirational in a shock 34-16 result in the series opener.
A neck injury ruled Tallis out of the remainder of that series but he returned to helm the drawn 2002 rubber and the 2-1 series loss in 2003, while he also led Australia in one Test match in ’02.
Darren Lockyer – 2001, 2004-11 (19 matches)
Earmarked as a leader from a young age, Lockyer got his first taste of the Queensland captaincy as a 24-year-old when Tallis broke down with injury during the 2001 series. He claimed the Wally Lewis Medal after steering the Maroons to a 40-14 triumph in that year’s decider.
Lockyer took over as Australian captain on the 2003 Kangaroo Tour and permanently for Queensland in 2004, leading both teams until his retirement in 2011. He oversaw the start of the Maroons’ dynasty in 2006 – the year he also led Brisbane to NRL glory and Australia to Tri Nations success.
The genius fullback-cum-five-eighth finished with six Origin series victories as skipper, as well as a record 38 Tests as Australian captain.
Shane Webcke – 2004 (1 match)
Lockyer’s reign as Queensland’s permanent captain began a match late after injury ruled him out of the 2004 series opener.
Broncos warhorse Webcke became the first front-rower to lead the Maroons since Arthur Beetson in 1980, with his side going down 9-8 in the first-ever Origin game to go into golden point. He called time on a stellar 21-game tenure in the Queensland team after that series.
Cameron Smith – 2008, 2012-17 (21 matches)
The 24-year-old Smith – after leading Melbourne to grand final victory in 2007 – filled in for an injured Lockyer as Australian and Queensland skipper, helming a thrilling 2-1 Origin series triumph in 2008.
The hooker nonpareil was the clear-cut choice to lead state and country after Lockyer’s retirement, which he did from 2011 until calling time on his own rep career in 2017.
Smith’s 21 games as captain are second in Origin history only to Wally Lewis, overseeing further series victories in 2012-13 and 2015-17.
Greg Inglis – 2018 (2 matches)
With Smith, Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk stepping down from the representative stage in 2017, veteran three-quarter Inglis was chosen to become just Queensland’s third skipper in 14 years.
Inglis’ charges lost the first two matches of the 2018 series, however, to surrender a three-year stranglehold on the Origin shield. He was ruled out of the dead-rubber by injury, bringing one of the great Origin careers – including a record 18 tries in 32 matches – to an end.
Billy Slater – 2018 (1 match)
Inglis’ absence saw legendary fullback Slater named as fullback for his farewell Origin appearance in the third match of the 2018 series.
The Maroons won the dead-rubber clash at Suncorp Stadium 18-12, with Slater named player of the match and – highly contentiously, given missed the opener with injury and NSW had won the series – the Wally Lewis Medal.
Daly Cherry-Evans – 2019-25 (19 matches)
The presence of Thurston and Cronk limited Cherry-Evans’ Origin opportunities for several years, but he began a streak of 20 consecutive appearances for Queensland in the 2018 dead-rubber.
The champion Manly halfback took over the captaincy in 2019 and helped engineer one of the biggest series boilovers in the concept’s history in the 2020 post-season campaign, then guided the Maroons to stunning series wins in 2022-23.
A series loss in 2024 and a convincing defeat in the 2025 opener prompted former teammate Slater to bring the axe down on the 36-year-old, who had become the oldest player in Origin history in the game one defeat.