Indigenous All Stars coach Laurie Daley said he was surprised at the dominance his side was able to achieve over the NRL All Stars in their 32-6 win at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
It was widely regarded the Indigenous side had the most impressive backline, but there were doubts they could match the NRL's forward pack.
Match them they did, though, laying the platform for five-eighth Jonathan Thurston to dictate proceedings and Ben Barba and Reece Robinson to run in three tries apiece.
"I wasn't expecting a performance as comprehensive as that," Daley said after the match.
"The boys have been terrific all week, but it was a pretty awesome side we were coming up against so to win by as far as we did was a very, very dominant performance."
Daley said an outstanding effort from his forwards allowed the star backs to shine.
"If you've got JT (Jonathan Thurston) and GI (Greg Inglis) and Benny Barba and all those guys in your team, if you can match the opposition in the forwards and hold on to the ball, good luck," he said.
"(The forwards) just kept turning up. I thought they were very good defensively.
"We all know they can carry the ball, but at times big fellas can get a bit tired and maybe not do the cleaning up work in the middle, but I thought tonight they just kept turning up for one another and they wanted to do it, and they did.
As for the backs, Daley said that working with them had given him an even greater appreciation of their skills.
Barba was particularly impressive, getting his hat-trick before half time and taking home the Preston Campbell Medal as the man of the match.
"Some of the things that these guys do at training, well they're just freakish," Daley said.
"You can't coach it because it's natural and a lot of the time you can't stop it because they're so good.
"They're just instinctive. They can play with structure but when the opportunity arises, they just seize it and they know what option to take.
"That's why they're champions and that's why they're the best players the game's produced because they can do that."
Indigenous All Stars captain Thurston said Barba would play a part in this year's State of Origin series, most likely from the bench, but Billy Slater was still the game's premier fullback.
"I've played a lot of football alongside Billy. He's one of, if not the best fullback I've seen playing," he said.
"Benny brings you a different style of fullback, but I think Billy's got that jersey sewn up there for a while."