2013 State of Origin

Only with the boot. That's the main problem with NSW's halves. Soward got in because of his kicking. Pearce, Reynolds and Walsh are kickers. Mullen was largely picked because of his kicking game. You'd think with the penchant of prioritising kicking halves that NSW would actually have a decent kicking game. Doesn't help when you have Andrew Johns with his satellite, electrophonic, magnatised, technicolour dreamcoat laptop telling Mitchell Pearce to kick on 3rd tackle from his own 20m line in the first set of every match. I honestly think you could make the case that in one of the games, I forget which one, NSW lost because of that first set. Obviously things followed but QLD started the match with Slater taking the ball and getting back to the 40m first tackle. From there QLD rolled up field, held field position dominance for the first 10 minutes, scored a try and from there NSW were always going uphill.

What amazes me even more is that in the two games Hayne got at fullback they didn't utilise his boot virtually at all. Cunt did more kicking playing at centre and wing than at fullback.

 

Actually, in all honesty, and even though I fervently pushed for his reselection (which I still think I was right to) Jarrod Mullen's kicking game in his only match was the worst. Virtually every kick was caught on the full by Hunt, Tate and Inglis.

 

Originally, yes he was. The only tries he was setting up were through kicks. That was the discussion at the time.

You're misphrasing it anyway. We, or at least I, am not saying such and such gets picked for kicking. Merely that it's very common for a player who creates points through kicks to be picked. The selectors don't seem to discern, in other words, between scoring through the hand or through the boot. A try is a try to them, or so it seems. I don't see how people like Ricky Stuart can say we need to score points to win and then go and pick Pearce at halfback. It's not that he doesn't have try assists to his name. He does. But they're rarely Thurston-type try assists. They're, well, Adam Reynolds try assists.

 

I don't believe for a second that it was only 35%. It wasn't a beat up anyway. We weren't taking our queue from newspapers. It was perceived by a large number of fans at the time.

I agree Pearce isn't the same as Reynolds. He does actually create with the ball in hand from time to time. I'm wondering when that time will actually arrive this year. He has one try assist (maybe two) and it or they were both from kicks. He actually has 4 try assists technically but I don't have to tell you why neither of the first two qualify.

Pearce relied on the kick much more, earlier in his career, as Reynolds no doubt does. Over time Reynolds will branch out, I'm sure. But the comparison is there IMO.

 

One of Pearce's "try assists" was that abomination of a pass to Maloney in the opening round. Pearce should actually get listed as bombing a try and the try assist should go to Ben Te'o's chest.

I still think Pearce has developed a better overall game these days. At club level he has become quite good at picking up forwards close to the line and has a good combination with Aubusson. Wish that he would run the ball more often though; he is surprisingly fast and looks dangerous at times when taking on the line.

 

You would hope that is just because Carney is struggling with his foot, rather than the view that Pearce > Carney.