In the last few years, the purview of the VR has been greatly diminished. And I happen to agree with it. If you allow them to check these things then you have to allow checking every time there's a knock-on/strip. This is just an unfortunate by-product but it's the better policy afaic.
If I wanted Inglis at fullback it's not because I think it's the better balance for our side but the lack of quality ball is just costing us. We really need to think about shifting Tate or bringing in another centre and cutting Slater. Which is unfortunate because he didn't at all play badly this series but I'm starting to come around to Fourex's line of thinking. We cannot have the most potent outside back in Origin history being used as a battering ram. Ideally, I just prefer to see a second rower with a bit of ball playing ability in place of McQueen and Thurston waking the fuck up and giving him some good early ball but neither seems likely atm.
The 1 on 1 Slater tackle? Slater makes a great tackle and gets pinged for it. Annoying. Been searching for an explanation for this and I've been told the ref called the tacklers offside, hence the penalty. Only heard that from one person though so.....
The main thing that needs to change though is getting another prop in there with Lillyman. Either McGuire, Hannant or Shillington and getting rid of some of the second rowers. Te'o, McQueen, Taylor can all fuck right off. We showed tonight that if we're strong defensively, we give ourselves more than enough opportunity to win the battle of field position. Just a shame Matty Scott didn't show up/got injured.
I find that very hard to believe. Seemed to me that the penalty only came after it was discovered that Bird had been dispossessed. Bird's got a loose carry and exploits it. On the other hand Thaiday did strip Gallen and that went our way.
I'm lying here questioning the decision to play DCE over Hunt; though it was the call I would have made, I felt Daly was very under-done.
I don't want this to at all take away from NSW's victory and keep in mind that I have repeatedly said that NSW were over the two games the better side. So I'm not blaming the losses on our injuries - we didn't take our opportunities and that's why we lost but I do think it ought to be borne in mind - we were pretty banged up this series in all fairness. Cronk - broken arm. Slater - bung shoulder. Inglis - bung knee. Cherry-Evans - bung knee. Parker - broken eye socket. Papalii - bung ankle. Tate - acl. Scott - fractured eye socket. This sort of run with injuries doesn't help that's for sure.
Slater actually had a pretty decent series. It's definitely the safest he's been at the back during Origin but he seems to have lost a lot of pace and hasn't been backing up around the middle nearly as much. And yeah, I'm reluctant to blame the ref but it's tough when two moments go against your team in crucial times. We really should have made a lot more of our time in the opposition 20, we didn't question the right edge nearly enough times. That Dave Taylor no look speculator on your own 30 was unforgivable too. I don't think I'll ever get over that.
Classy, Ben. Very classy. Tate has missed fewer rep and club games than Hodges because of injury, thanks. Of course they're both injury-prone.
Gould was classic for that, they'd just stopped play and he says 'well it looks like a lower leg fracture' before a replay was run. Could've been a torn scrotum for all the cunt knew
Almost as good as his attempt at picking the ball up instead of planting a hand on it when it's already in the in-goal and isn't bouncing. You know right then that this cunt has a screw loose and is far too costly to be put on the field in a rep game. He's just a club level flat-track bully. Meninga came out and said he's practically never played well for QLD. So what does he do? He goes and picks him because his club form has been great. This is the fatal flaw in the club junkie mentality IMO.
Ben Teo!!!! What a legend. Attack was so dire, from both sides. Was always going to be a lazy effort in defence that set the teams apart and QLD cracked first. Awesome scramble from NSW all night.
Ben Teo!!!! What a legend. Attack was so dire, from both sides. Was always going to be a lazy effort in defence that set the teams apart and QLD cracked first. Awesome scramble from NSW all night.
Well in all fairness NSW actually cracked first with Thaiday getting over the line when nothing was doing. That was just as lazy from the Blues front line. Hayne plane saved the day fortunately for you guys.
NSW second man plays were ridiculously deep all night, really couldn't work out what they were looking to achieve. Kicking options were quite poor too. Still a lot more maroon tears than I was expecting, good shit.
