Who would win a fantasy Origin match?
Roar Pro
By Jason Cave, 18 Mar 2010 The Crowd is a Roar Pro
In 2008, as part of the Australian Rugby League centenary celebrations, the New South Wales Rugby League and the Queensland Rugby League selected their teams of the century.
What if the NSW and Queensland teams played a ‘dream’ State of Origin series in Sydney and Brisbane?
NEW SOUTH WALES:
1. Clive Churchill
2. Ken Irvine
3. Reg Gasnier
4. Graeme Langlands
5. Dally Messenger (c)
6. Bob Fulton
7. Andrew Johns
8. Frank Burge
9. Sandy Pearce
10. Glenn Lazarus
11. Ron Coote
12. Norm Provan
13. John Raper
RESERVES
14. Wally Prigg
15. Dave Brown
16. Steve Rogers
17. Roy Bull
SQUAD MEMBERS (if there was a State of Origin series)
Wayne Pearce
Ray Price
Max Krilich
Brad Fittler
Peter Sterling
Brett Kenny
Mick Cronin
Laurie Daley
Steve Mortimer
Ben Elias
Paul Harrogan
Steve Roach
COACH: Phil Gould
QUEENSLAND
1.Darren Lockyer
2.Cecil Aynsley
3.Tom Gorman
4.Mal Meninga
5.Dennis Flannery
6.Wally Lewis (c)
7.Allan Langer
8.Mick Madsen
9.Noel Kelly
10.Duncan Hall
11.Brian Davies
12.Arthur Beetson
13.Bob Lindner
RESERVES
14.Jim Craig
15.Duncan Thomson
16.Gene Miles
17.Herb Steinohrt
SQUAD MEMBERS
Paul Vautin
Greg Dowling
Chris Close
Billy Slater
Cameron Smith
Martin Bella
Mark Coyne
John Lang
Gorden Tallis
COACH: Wayne Bennett
The referees for the series would be:
Game 1: Bill Harrigan
Game 2: Barry Gomersall
Game 3: Greg Hartley
Who would win the series and why?
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The Crowd Says (14) | Page 1 of Comments
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sheek said | March 18th 2010 @ 6:13am | Report comment
Game 1 under Harrigan – NSW.
Bill would let the game flow, allowing NSW’s superior speed & dexterity in the backs to prevail. Qld would struggle with overall pace of game. A comfortable win to NSW!
Game 2 under Gomersall – Qld.
Fiercely desperate to square the series, & “helped” by the ‘Grasshopper,’ Qld would bash NSW out of this game for an emphatic win!
Game 3 under hartley – NSW.
Controversy would reign with ‘Hollywood’ awarding NSW’s match & series winning try on the 7th tackle! Fortunes would fluctuate like a seesaw, NSW winning at the death!
Gee… it would be something to see….. !!!
Fivehole said | March 18th 2010 @ 8:30am | Report comment
You could trot out the Toowoomba Clydesdales for game 2 and with Gomersall refereeing they would still win easily!
rob said | March 18th 2010 @ 8:45am | Report comment
Queensland would walk it in – they’d play with pride and passion. The blues just don’t get it, never will.
Crazy Dave said | March 18th 2010 @ 8:55am | Report comment
Qld would win the series…. Look at the line ups… Langer, Lockyer and Lewis for Qld…. These three are the undisputed kings at Fullback, Half Back and Five-Eighth… The rest of the two teams look to be fairly even, which means that the Qlders with their spirit, and the “L” Squad advantage, would win the series easily. 2-1 or 3-0.
Oh… and that is not even mentioning the Coach advantage… Bennett is MUCH better than Gould!!!
Devon Head said | March 18th 2010 @ 12:24pm | Report comment
Crazy Dave,
There would be very few that agree that those 3 are undisputed Kings for their positions….
Johns and Thurston are much better players at No 7. than Langer Your Maroon colour blinkers are blinding you to the truth.
Wally grew a third League when playing origin and is the King of origin but certainly not number 6. Daley and Foulton just to name a few were much better than him..
Lockyer possibly but in my opinion you would be better served having Slatter at Fullback and Darren coming of the bench to cover 1, 6 & 7.
sheek said | March 18th 2010 @ 1:16pm | Report comment
Devon Head,
I’ve seen Fulton, Lewis, Kenny & Daley in that chronological order & rate them 1-Lewis; 2-Fulton; 3-Kenny; 4-Daley. I think so would most fair-minded people. Lewis & Fulton are a bit ahead of Kenny & Daley.
I’ve heard all the stories of Kenny containing Lewis in SOO, but I saw most of those games anyway, & Lewis gave nothing away to Kenny, & indeed had his measure often enough.
If considering Lockyer as a 5/8 I would have him ahead of Daley, & possibly Kenny (who have to think about that). Fittler is off the pace, I reckon. Keep in mind Fulton, Kenny, Daley & Fittler could all play centre as well.
Thurston is good but overblown hype IMHO.
If picking the Qld team, I would certainly consider Billy Slater, Dale Shearer & Kerry Boustead for the fullback & wings positions. Also Greg Inglis & Cameron Smith are probably now the best in their respective positions as Queenslanders.
Mushi said | March 18th 2010 @ 1:18pm | Report comment
I don’t know what is more laughable saying Daley is “much” better than Lewis…or thinking the only one of the three that could be “undisputed” is the guy going up against Clive Churchill.
sheek said | March 18th 2010 @ 1:03pm | Report comment
Obviously, you’re just winding everyone up suggesting Lockyer, Lewis & Langer are the undisputed kings in their position.
People who have followed the game longer & deeper than you will tell you Lewis is the only one of the three who is undisputed number one. And having seen both Lewis & Fulton, Lewis is only just in front.
Johns is just in front of Langer, having a better all-round game. I never saw Churchill play, but he is the undisputed best fullback to play for the Kangaroos, from those who have followed the game a long time.
While the Qld three-quarter line is solid, the NSW three-quarters are far superior.
The forward pack lineups are more difficult to decipher. Burge was probably more comfortable in the backrow, while Beetson was an undisputedly better prop than second-row. I would suggest the Qld front-row to be slightly tougher, while the respective back-rows are fairly even, with NSW a bit in front.
While Qld might have consistently shown greater desire since SOO started, NSW used to value their jerseys in the olden days. So to suggest otherwise is nonsense – both teams would shed blood for their jerseys.
All other things being equal, NSW would scrape home 2-1 in a best of 3 matches. With the two packs, 1/2s & 5/8s fairly even, NSW’s advantage is in the 3/4 line & at fullback. Especially in the back 3 – both wingers & fullback.
Fivehole said | March 18th 2010 @ 11:13am | Report comment
On paper i think NSW should win, but apart from the last 2 years, NSW has looked stronger on paper every year. Did help them for the first 25 years though.
Still, i think with the above squads NSW should win.
Jason Cave said | March 18th 2010 @ 4:17pm | Report comment
Can you imagine the furore if Greg ‘Hollywood’ Hartley was in control of Game 3 in the ‘dream’ State of Origin series?
Picture it if you will: the series is locked 1-1 and the decider is played at Suncorp Stadium (aka Lang Park). With 1:20 left in the match and the series and Qld leading 22-18, NSW makes a last-minute grab for glory. Kenny makes a run, passes it to Sterling who sends Andrew Johns over for the match-winner, which seals the series in NSW’s favour.
However, 24 hrs after the game, a controversy erupts when the Courier Mail accused Hartley of not counting tackles properly, and NSW’s series-winning try, was in fact, scored on the 7th tackle.
It is 1978 all over again, on the biggest stage of them all: State of Origin.
Also, it is difficult to understand just why Hartley was never given control of the 1980 and ’81 games, despite the fact he was the no.1 referee in NSW at that time. Sure, a British & a NZ referee was in control for the two games I mentioned above, but Hartley would’ve done OK under the pressure of State of Origin. Hartley was probably NSW’s version of ‘the Grasshopper’, the late Barry Gomersall.
formeropenside said | March 18th 2010 @ 5:31pm | Report comment
I would have thought a State of Origin team would be restricted to 1980 onwards, as that is when the Origin games were played.
Jason Cave said | March 20th 2010 @ 10:04am | Report comment
There would probably be an extra ‘edge’ in the series, the contest between rival coaches Wayne Bennett (Qld) and Phil Gould (NSW). Even more so, when Gould has criticised Bennett for not supporting the formation of the NRL commission, and in fact, not bothering to turn up at the information meeting about the setting up of the commission.
And speaking of the ‘Grasshopper’, the late Barry Gomersall, Ken Arthurson in his book ‘Arko-My Game’ (1997) revealed that the NSWRL was thinking about appointing Gomersall to control a NSWRL Grand Final in the mid ’80s.
Jason Cave said | March 22nd 2010 @ 8:17pm | Report comment
If NSW was desperate to win the series overall, they would’ve made a change and brought Brett Kenny into the side instead of Bob Fulton for Game 1, as a counter to Wally Lewis. In fact, in the period 1982-88, of the 12 State of Origin games in which Kenny went head-to-head against Lewis, NSW held a 8-4 win-loss advantage. Even more so on the 1982 Kangaroo Tour of Great Britain & France, in which Lewis was the Australian five-eighth, but somehow lost out to Kenny for the first game on that tour against Hull Kingston Rovers-and stayed that way for the remainder of the Test series against Great Britain in 1982.
Jason Cave said | July 13th 2010 @ 9:05am | Report comment
By the way, I reckon the penalty count in Game 2 under the late Barry Gomersall as referee would’ve been Qld 14 NSW 1. ‘The Grasshopper’ was no nit-picker, and let things run along-even if there was an all-in brawl. But the problem for the NSW players of that era was that Gomersall seem to heavily favour Queensland rather than NSW; even if the game was in Sydney. The late Ron McAuliffe picked Mackay referee Gomersall ahead of the no.1 referee in Queensland, Eddie Ward for the second game of the 1982 series.