The selfless Queensland stalwart said she’s always happy to be included in the Queensland footballing family.

Besides, she feels it gives her another opportunity to square the ledger, given she took the 2015 draw and those two losses in 2016 and 2017 in the Interstate Challenge personally.

Being a tough marker on herself; the former centre turned front rower feels personally responsible, as she feels it happened on her watch after she took over the captaincy reigns from Queensland legend Karen Murphy.

“To win 17 years in a row in a Queensland jumper and getting to play with some of the greats in the women’s game and then being handed the captaincy after the equivalent of King Wally in Karen Murphy, we drew in Townsville and I just thought, oh my god I’ve nearly let the whole state down," Hancock said.

“Then losing to NSW the following year, it’s haunting me, I hate it.

“So just on we’ve lost the last two years, is enough to keep wanting to play this bloody game, that’s for sure," the Maroons legend said.

Credit: Steph Hancock Facebook page

On closer inspection, NSW had closed the gap in regards to professionalism and in many ways had surpassed professional trailblazers Queensland, especially with the Blues setting up their own highly successful pathways programme.

Hancock, as skipper, also had to cope with the loss of talented players who had been there since the beginning of that 17 year winning streak, so essentially Queensland were going through a rebuilding phase of their own, while NSW have been at the peak of their powers; with a new brigade of predominantly young players who were not scarred by all those previous losses.

“We had that core group of players; you had your Ali Brigginshaw, your Erin Elliot, your Natie (Natalie) Dwyer, Murph, Renee (Kunst), Tahnee Norris and we had Greenie - Teresa Anderson out the back," she said.

“We’d been playing together for a decade.

“We all know each other, you know how each other works I suppose.