HE SHOWED a cool, composed hand well beyond his years in helping NSW to victory, but Peter Wallace emerged from the State of Origin haze - and a sleepless night - with a revelation as surprising as his performance itself. He ain't as laid-back as he seems.

"I was pretty nervous heading in," the Blues and Brisbane halfback said yesterday. "I am pretty laid-back most of the time, but when you are out at training with Craig [Bellamy] and Joey [Johns] and those guys running things, and guys like Danny [Buderus] and Gaz [Mark Gasnier] and that, you just don't want to throw a shit pass or stuff something up. It was one of the things I was worried about. I didn't want to be the one who messed something up. It probably took a couple of days to get over that."

His Origin performance will take a while longer to get over, both for Queensland and NSW. The 22-year-old all but guaranteed himself a start in Game II in Brisbane - not to mention a pay rise. Wallace has a clause in his contract which allows a review of his present deal with the Broncos to be reviewed for 28 days following his selection in a representative team.

Wallace's manager, Allan Gainey, who has already fielded half-a-dozen enquiries about the halfback's status, is now likely to meet with Brisbane officials next week with a view to extending his current deal, believed to be worth $180,000 a season, and upgrading the final year. More sleepless nights could be around the corner as he weighs up interest from elsewhere and intent from Brisbane. Broncos boss Bruno Cullen admitted Wallace's value would be forced up.

"It just means that we'll review it. It's not a get-out clause," Broncos boss Bruno Cullen said. "And we'll certainly review it with Peter and his manager. We'd like to keep him."

But Cullen said they would not be sparked into action following his heroics for NSW, rather their long-held belief that he was a long-term talent.

"We were always going to review it even if he didn't make [the NSW side]," Cullen said.

"Peter might have surprised a few people but his performance hasn't surprised us. I'm not being smart, but we recognised his ability this time last year.

"He probably just came along a bit quicker than we thought, but we always considered him a standout. It's just his calm nature. He probably came close to man of the match.

"With all due respect, he's not going to be Andrew Johns or Allan Langer, but he can keep his head and do everything the coach wants him to do."

That coach, Brisbane's Wayne Bennett, is a figure who complicates Wallace's future. He effectively moved from Penrith for Bennett, and now that the coach is heading to St George Illawarra, he would be more likely to move on when his contract is up at the end of next season than had the coach stayed.

Bennett, the most famous Queensland coach in Origin history, thinks so highly of him that he played a role - small but also significant - in helping Wallace bring down the Maroons.

"He spoke to me early in the week," Wallace said. "He told me to go and enjoy it, make the most of it and to not get too carried away with all the hype and stuff before the game. He said it was important not to get caught up in it because you lose focus on what you are there for."

Just as Wallace has played tough, Gainey was talking tough yesterday.

"They know the situation, and I think they'd be very keen to look after him," he said. "They've got to work out who's there next year and there are blokes who will take up a lot of the cap. But they might have some money if [Michael] Ennis and [Joel] Moon don't stay. They may have room to move.

"We've got to be realistic. They've got problems under the cap. But he's pretty loyal that that's where he got his chance. Even though [coach Wayne] Bennett won't be there next year, he's pretty happy."

No doubt. Wallace's rise to Origin hero is all the more remarkable considering where he was a year ago, and that fact may weigh heavily on him. Brisbane believed in him when others wouldn't.

"It was only this time last year when I was playing reserve grade at Penrith and feeling pretty ordinary about things," he said. "It is unbelievable really, what has happened in the 12 months since."