League: Maroons head to Sydney confident of victory

Queensland centre Greg Inglis. Photo / Getty Images

COOLUM - The Queensland team have checked out of Camp Coolum on the Sunshine Coast confident their preparation is spot on for the opening State of Origin rugby league match against NSW in Sydney tomorrow night.

"It's been a great preparation," declared fullback Billy Slater.

"We've been pretty relaxed away from training but once we get into team meetings and training we're pretty intense.

"The training sessions have been really good and it's almost time to throw the switch."

Apart from the loss of hooker Cameron Smith to injury - a significant blow given he has played in every game during the Maroons' record four series winning streak - things have gone smoothly for coach Mal Meninga.

The focus of the week in camp was re-establishing a solid preparation after copping a lot of criticism for their build-up to the third game last year which they lost to the Blues.

However, the players took some time out to relax on Monday, some playing golf or going deep sea fishing while Greg Inglis was one who went swimming with the sharks at Underwater World at Mooloolaba.

The 17-man squad were flying to Sydney before captain Darren Lockyer took them through a light run at ANZ Stadium this afternoon.

Punters have unloaded heavily on NSW with bookies across the country and Queensland - early favourites when the teams were announced last week - could go into the game as slight underdogs.

NSW have two home games and the feeling is they must win the opener in Sydney or they could struggle to beat the Maroons at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium in the return game when Smith should be back in his No 9 jumper.

- AAP