There penalty goal came off the back of the most bullshit high shot too... Doesn't matter though - it's in the books now.
Okay so here goes (you cunts knew it was coming ). Here's my view of the match. Most of it's probably gonna be rambling shit cause of the state I'm in and having not seen a replay. 1.As most of us on here predicted, as opposed to the general public, Adam Reynolds being the limited player he is was fucking hopeless. He was hesitant, misdirected, and when his kicking game isn't smoking, he's garbage. Some of his kicks were quite good but there were way too many that weren't. You just can't have a half that shovels (and even struggles to do that.) As I tried to point out when he did it for Souths the other day, do they not see how a no.7 who has to turn his back to the defence in order to throw a simple cut-out on his favoured side, and then still misses the mark, as he once again did tonight, does not have the prerequisite skills to play Origin? Or a player whose running game resembles that of Dallas Johnson but even less prolific? 2.Moylan was pretty disappointing. Obviously nervous and the greasy conditions not helping, he really looked flustered at the back. Dropped one cold, let one bounce and conceded a dropout, and then fumbled another in-goal. In attack he was mainly good and created space, especially on QLD's right, but overall it was a bit of a let down given how highly I rate him. 3.Josh Morris was the worst player on the field. I can forgive him for dropping Ferguson's ridiculous pass but the tap and then later on kicking on 4th? fmd, that was downright embarrassing. 4.O'Neill/Cronk's defence was pus. NSW didn't remotely look like creating anything except when we allowed them too. This moving up 5m, stopping and backpeddling bullshit needs to be fixed immediately. NSW should not have scored a point tonight given their attack. Just on O'Neill that cunt was rubbish. Defended badly, dropped the ball and simply did fuck all to help his side coming out of trouble. Either Gagaig goes to centre and Feltd to the wing or we put Morgan out there and bring another utility into camp. It's a real shame we don't have Munster. 5.I was cursing Oates when he wasn't there for the Inglis offload. That was a try gone begging. We had so many potential support players on the inside. In fact it happened twice and this is what I don't think a lot of people appreciate about Darius Boyd. Yeah he's scored plenty of easy ones but the cunt is reliably there to do so. Can't begrudge the Oates though because overall I thought he was solid. 6.I lost my shit at our outside backs (Gagai, Oates, O'Neill). Contesting every kick that was well short of your line and knocking on was just placing us under so much pressure. Most of the high attacking kicks from the Blues were garbage and we just handed it back to them. Oates, O'Neill, Gagai all dropped bombs that were well short, and then Gagai fumbling Farah's grubber. And so forth. We're really shaky in that department. 8.Having said the above, Gagai was a tower of strength bringing the ball out of trouble. Cunt just did not stop charging it back. 160m for a winger who only saw open space once is impressive. 9.Gillett in defence and Papalii in attack were fucking monumental. I didn't like Thaiday on the left; give me big Papa any day. We all saw what he did through the middle so lets have the best power running second rower back in the second row please. 10.Myles was barely sighted again until late but he aimed up. McGuire was great and Scott was solid. I don't want to say too much about the Blues players because unlike most club games it's just too much to really focus on them as well. In attack I'm watching QLD and in defence I'm also watching everything QLD players are doing, even off the ball. So I might wait for a replay first. But yeah fucking stoked to get this vital win in Sydney. We're right in the box seat now.
Disagree. The game is always slower in Sydney. Wet, slippery conditions. In Brisbane it's quicker. That's been demonstrated repeatedly over the years.
Sam Thaiday on tonight's win: "It was a bit like losing your virginity. It wasn't very nice but we got the job done."
As for the officiating - I thought it was outright disgraceful. Both sides were ripped off and I'm not really sure who got the rough end of the pineapple more. Against QLD - -Thaiday had the ball blatantly pushed out twice for no penalty. And Bird did it again in the last 10 seconds, for obvious reasons. -QLD only got one offside penalty all night to the Blues 3 when NSW were clearly offside several times in the maroons 30m. Thurston was square at marker. -Gagai (or maybe O'Neill) was ruled for a knock on when firstly, Jennings had no eyes for the footy and barged into him, and then the ball itself bounced off the cunt's head not Gagai's hands. -Gagai being pushed into touch should've been penalised for a flop by Cordner. -The Maloney pass was clearly forward. That whole 2 minute section was a bit fucked - seeing Thaiday first get stripped and no penalty, in good field position. Then another penalty for offside. Followed by a try from a forward pass. Bit hard to swallow being marched down field for that shit. Against NSW - -QLD got away with murder in the ruck. NSW did a little bit as well but QLD were all over them and should've been penalised several times. I say it every year. If the refs don't step in early and blow a few ruck penalties the game will be a mosh pit. Fifita has a habit of walking off the mark but on several occasions Smith and others just did not let him up. Many other examples too of course. -O'Neill's pass for Gagai was marginally forward imo. -The O'Neill bomb was most definitely a knock on from QLD. It came at a crucial time. They'd just gotten the Gagai one wrong in favour of NSW and then this one wrong against NSW. -The high shot on Scott was absurd. Embarrassing to blow a penalty for that in Origin. And of course the most pivotal, the no try for Morris. Call was right afaic. No evidence whatsoever that it was on the line. I was very afraid it being sent up as a try the decision would stand but credit to the VR. Those are the only ones I can remember atm. I'm sure there were many other bullshit calls.
lol Gus copping it big time even from Blues fans. I like Gus most of the time and rate his football knowledge but mate you should know by now to choose your words with care when you're on tv. Saying you don't think the scoreline accurately reflected the match is one thing. Going on to say "NSW weren't beaten tonight" is just asking for a pasting. I don't think I've ever seen Gould and Johns so visibly frustrated with the NSW side and an Origin game before, lol Fat and the King were loving it in, for them, and equally frustrating way.
It's a massive shame we lost Morgan so quickly. Just that one run he took, he looked like creating havoc in the middle for tiring Blues forwards. Credit to our boys for playing with 16 and not having his great ball running in this match. Great player.
Yep. That one takes the cake. Imagine Timmy from South Park playing hooker for most of the game and that was Crocker at 9. lol shortly thereafter they found some bloke to replace him who was a tad better. Cameron Smith I think his name is
Haha I think the opposite is true here. They officiated it like a club game which is a large reason why it fucking sucked. Low-scoring Origin games can be absorbing but not where there are 8 penalties (most of them soft as shit) and 16 errors. There were some legitimately shit calls as well but they're human so meh; what really killed the game was the style of the refereeing rather than individual calls.
Had some classy touches in Queensland's 20 but looked nervous at the back. More or less what I expected from his first game tbh.
What I will say about the game itself was that it was fucking awful, boring football. Tough? Yes, skillful? No. A combination of loose officiating of essential rules to both teams being so nervous and critical of making unforced errors that they play condensed, ultra-conservative football that is painfully boring to watch. This is supposed to be the pinnacle of the game but until that is changed it will stay painfully boring. I think the officiating is the key, you just can't allow teams to be that loose on the fundamental ruck rules and expect a high quality game. Rightfully blow the penalties and introduce fatigue by forcing teams to defend their line and watch them actually start to play fucking footy. It's still is and always will be the toughest brand but you see better footy week to week than that.
Alright. Agree with the O'Neill overturn being wrong. It was 100% a level up decision. And AFAIC as soon as you see referees (or video referees in this instance) clambering desperately to level a wrong decision they need to be thrown to the wolves for good. It just proves in my mind that they're worried obout how they're perceived and their decisions deciding the game. It is incompetence at its very worst. In my eyes it is even worse than an offficial not knowing a rule or law of the game. The Morris 'Try'. I definitely think it was a No Try. But, just like Austin's against the Dogs on Sunday, was a definite 'Try' given the flawed system that has been put in place. The referee was obviously unsighted, asked the touchy who even more obviously has NFI, and they 100% guessed Try. That guess (I realise every refereeing decision is an interpretation so an educated guess of sorts) skews the entire process. Instead of using the evidence to make a decision they look at the evidence to see whether it's 'sufficient enough' to overturn the original guess. It's an absolute joke of a system that needs to be changed immediately. The view from touch in goal had the ball obscured on camera by hands and feet when it possibly may have touched the line. That view, considering the others definitely did not disprove the ball touching the line, 100% should have ensured the decision was not overturned. I don't think it was a try. But you can't have officials bending the rules because; (a) The enormity of the game and game situation & (b) The farcical nature of the implemented decision process in place. I'm not dirty at all because I don't think he scored. But I've ranted several times about the ridiculous process this season and this just adds to it. Needs to be scrapped ASAP.
I thought Justin O'Neill played really well. What'd he do so wrong, MF? Admittedly I was 6 pints deep before kick off.
Ferguson was non-existent aside from a few solid runs bringing the ball back. Did he even touch the ball once in attack? Morris barely got any ball either. That whole side was just standing around the whole game in attack thanks to Reynolds.
