The Blues’ real problem lies with the selectors
Roar Guru By David Wiseman, 29 May 2009 David Wiseman is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- Barry Gomersall, Gene Miles, Greg Dowling, NSW Blues, Queensland Maroons, Ricky Walford, Rugby League, State Of Origin
State of Origin. AAP Images
It is gearing up to that time of year again: State of Origin time. The three matches are always a highlight of the sporting year. Approaching the 2006 series, many claimed that the series was dead.
This announcement was made because New South Wales had just won its third straight series and were looking to win a fourth, which hadn’t been achieved since Queensland won the first five.
No such proclamation now with Queensland looking for its fourth straight series.
But that’s the way it is, New South Wales always seem to get the rough end of the pineapple when it comes to State of Origin.
They had to put up with Barry Gomersall, and they also have to put up with the petulant attitude of Queenslanders, who only seem to sing when they’re winning.
When New South Wales are on top, suddenly Chris Close isn’t as fired up. Greg Dowling and Gene Miles are nowhere to be heard from.
The frustrating thing for NSW, though, is that many times they are their worst enemy, especially at the selection table.
Queensland have that knack of picking players who perform. Guys might be tragically out of form for their club side, but put a Maroon jersey on them and suddenly they are world-beaters.
Carl Webb is one of these guys.
He must remember the stories of Olsen Filipaina being plucked out of reserve grade by New Zealand and repeatedly putting Australia to the sword. I’m still scratching my head as to how they won the 1995 series.
And 3-0 at that.
Not only that, but they somehow managed to extract some quality football out of Wayne Bartrim – who would have thought?
When it comes to selection, the NSW team has a strong resemblance to the English cricket team.
They both have have a large pool of players to choose from and have made their way through most of the pool. Players such as Steve Hanson, David Trewhella and Aaron Raper.
47 players have played one game for NSW, compared to the 21 for Queensland. That’s a shocking statistic.
Then you have guys like Cliff Lyons, Terry Matterson and Brad Izzard who just couldn’t reproduce their club form for NSW.
Matterson was the worst of both worlds – he was a worldbeater for the Broncos, and then when he played against them in State of Origin. he couldn’t produce.
And what about the greatest injustice of all? That Ricky Walford only got one game!
Recommend this story.
May 30th 2009 @ 12:11pm
Greg Russell said | May 30th 2009 @ 12:11pm | Report comment
Spiro wrote
“In a way the NSW selectors have ’suffered’ from the problem of having too many players of a similar quality to select from. The Queensland selectors have the opposite problem, generally. They have to play all their best players to make up the 13″
This is correct. Verbatim applies for trans-Tasman rugby, where NSW RL = NZ rugby and Qld RL = Aus rugby.
I find the analogy NSW RL = English cricket to be shallow. It was only yesterday that I heard a leading NZ cricket commentator talking about being in England a year ago, and making the observation “Cricket is played in barely any schools in England”. Talk to English people that you know and you will establish that this is correct. So the problem for English cricket is that barely anyone plays the game. That’s why players from other countries find it so easy to make the English team. England’s best two batsman are South Africans (Strauss, KP). Geraint Jones went to England because he couldn’t even get a run in Brisbane first-grade. NSW’s problem in rugby league is completely different in nature to this.
I know one should be wary of one-line solutions to complicated problems, but I find NSW’s current rugby league problems to be very simple in origin: Qld have Thurston and Lockyer. Warren Ryan constantly makes the point that if you put these two in NSW jumpers, then the Blues would regularly win, and similarly if you put them in Kiwi jerseys. Five years ago it was the reverse, when NSW had Andrew Johns.
By the way, I recommend Peter Roebuck’s “In It To Win It” for anyone who wants a better understanding of both Australian and English cricket.
June 15th 2009 @ 9:24pm
ricky said | June 15th 2009 @ 9:24pm | Report comment
what is wrong with you selectors you chose trent barrett over jamie soward he is one of the best players in the comp at the moment. the selectors should consider him. peace out!!!