Like figuring out if Greg Inglis should have been able to play for Queensland in the first place or if the infamous California match in 1987 counts as an actual Origin game, there's more than one answer as to when Queensland's mighty dynasty ended.

Was it in 2014, when the unfancied Blues finally snatched victory after eight years of crushing defeats? Or was it 2017, when Queensland wrapped up their 10th series win in 11 years and watched Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Johnathan Thurston ride off into the sunset?

The record books might say it's the former and the vibes might say it's the latter, but the truth is the dynasty is still going.

It's showing no signs of slowing down. It will continue as long as rugby league people are alive to remember it.

Brad Fittler's Blues are aiming to win their four series in the past five years, and if they can pull it off after going down 1-0 they'll have something of a dynasty of their own, this is true.

But the Queensland streak has now taken on it's second life, where the legendary players who created all those indelible Maroon memories return as coaches and imbue a new generation with that same magic.

That's exactly what new coach Billy Slater managed to do with Queensland's upset victory on Wednesday night. For the older players in the Queensland team, Slater was already a legend when they played with him at this level for the first time and that brings a charisma, aura and respect that doesn't easily vanish.

"Billy and the coaching staff couldn't have been any clearer about what this week was about – it was about us, it was about building a connection to each other and building a connection to the Queensland people," skipper Daly Cherry-Evans said.

"If you have that, you'll find a bit more purpose in our performance, and that's what we did.

"I'm not surprised by his approach, because I held him in such high regard as a player and ex-teammate. So I wasn't surprised with how much I learned, I wasn't surprised at how much he wanted us to connect as a team and how much he wanted us to connect with the Queensland people.

"When he was a player, that's what he did. He didn't muck around in making us understand where we are and making us understand how lucky we are to be here."

For the younger players, Slater's incredible Queensland career from 2004 to 2018 means they grew up watching him, cheering for him and wishing they could be like him, just as Slater himself grew up watching Darren Lockyer, or Lockyer grew up watching Wally Lewis.

"It's very easy to be coached by Bill, he's an approachable guy and he's perfect for this playing group because he was a player not too long ago," Maroons lock Reuben Cotter said.

"It's the best, being in his camp. There's such a good feeling among this group that we were building on this week, to get the win with this group is very special and it's something we'll keep building on.

"We have room to improve, and Bill knows that, and that's exciting."

To both ends of the spectrum, Slater is a hero, and his words have gravitas, and when it comes to Origin, finding a way to get through to your players on that level is almost always more important than dialling up the Xs and Os – although Slater's shown himself adept at both branches of the coaching art, especially with the way he used his bench.

He's also stacked the deck with Queensland legends, bringing former legends like Thurston and Smith and Inglis into camp to ensure the message sinks in even further.

It means even somebody like Cherry-Evans, who made his Origin debut back in 2012, or Ben Hunt, who has been in first grade longer than anyone else in the squad, can still pick up something new, either from a technical or an emotional perspective.

"When they spoke, they're talking with 30 or 40 games of Origin experience. They weren't talking about results or about winning and losing, they were talking about what it means to play and along the way they gave us some footy knowledge. I learned so much," Cherry-Evans said.

"Me and Ben Hunt walked out of a meeting, and it was one of our longer meetings, and I said I couldn't believe how long the meeting had gone for because I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

"They mixed the technical side and talking about passion and Queensland and connection, and they took us on a real journey this week."

Slater isn't exactly breaking new ground with his approach. It's the same thing Mal Meninga did back in the early days of Slater's own Origin career, and the same thing Paul Vautin did with his 1995 miracle and it's the same thing Fittler has done in recent years with the Blues, which itself is an evolution of Phil Gould's style in the 1990s and early 2000s.

There's tweaks and changes, of course, and just following the steps doesn't make it work because if the players don't buy what the coach is selling, the whole system falls apart. But it's done this way because it works.

Nobody owns the Blue or Maroon jersey, it's only rented. And in wearing it, you're inheriting the legend that came before you, and the previous generation has a responsibility to pass it down to the young bloods.

It is their time now, but your time matters as well, and it was just a moment ago and the weight of history doesn't need to be a weight at all, it can be a powerful, binding, propulsive force.

The current Queenslanders don't need to match the dynasty or the vaunted feats of Slater and his all-star coaching staff.

They don't need to pick up the ball, chip over the top, regather and score like they saw Slater do back in 2004, and they don't need to bang over sideline conversions while their shoulders flap in the breeze like Thurston did in 2017.

They just need to understand that those moments they grew up watching and loving and reliving is what they've inherited, and they will one day have moments of their own that they will pass on.

Maybe one day, many years from now, Pat Carrigan will come in to Maroons camp and the players will remember his remarkable Origin debut, or Valentine Holmes will be there and they'll be inspired by memories of his fearless defence.

Or Cameron Munster will be there, swaggering into the room like Allan Langer does now, and the players will get nervous that their boyhood hero is really standing in front of them, shaking their hand and welcoming them to the brotherhood and telling them how whatever it was that lived in him when he wore Maroon now lives in them.

The stars of today are the old heads of tomorrow, and what they have learned and known and understood is passed down to the next generation.

That's what Slater understands because it was taught to him by Mal Meninga and Lockyer and those who came before him, and it's something he'll teach to those who come after.

It's what makes a jersey more than a piece of fabric, what makes a legacy stand the test of time and what makes three games of footy feel like less of a sporting event and more of a life experience.

Slater said it best after the match when he called his Maroons team a type of family. Like a family, the elders are passing down what they know. The old are teaching the young.