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After finally breaking their duck last year and winning a series for the first time since Twitter and Facebook has been around, the Blues produced yet another ‘so close but yet so far’ performance.
As far as I’m concerned this performance was down to two players; Mitchell Pearce and Trent Hodkinson. Both, you could argue, had solid enough games, but that’s exactly the point, they were solid but nothing else.
Shouldn’t a half win you a game of rugby league? Not just sit there and watch his teammates try and win it for you.
When five-eighth Mitchell Pearce revealed in his post match interview with NBN that he was ‘surprised’ by his teammates’ decision to run the ball on a crucial last-tackle play with eight minutes remaining on the clock it just typifies what’s wrong with NSW’s halves. Neither was willing to take control or responsibility. You should’ve been calling for the ball Pearce; it’s your job.
Only a couple of minutes later NSW again had a golden opportunity, only this time it was to level the match as Cooper Cronk had already slotted a field goal home from a similar position. This time around, however, it was Trent Hodkinson to blame.
He hid at second receiver leaving his fullback, and probably NSW’s man of the match, Josh Dugan with the responsibility of having a crack at levelling the scores.
Honestly, what’s wrong with you Hodkinson? Did you not dream of becoming a NSW hero by slotting a winning – or in this case – a field goal to take this game to golden point?
Where was Pearce during this set? The search party is still looking.
Neither of the halves wanted to be a NSW hero last night, heck they didn’t even want to take control of the match. All they wanted to do was their bare minimum. That was the difference in game one.
You could argue that at club level Pearce nor Hodkinson are actually the dominant half in their respective club’s halves pairing, and that’s concerning.
Pearce is nothing more than a support player built into a wonderful structure created by a very good Roosters coaching staff. Maloney does a lot of the work there and it was surprising not to see him get the call up instead of his clubmate.
Hodkinson is known as the ‘ice man’ at club level, mainly because he has to deal with the erratic behaviour of his halves partner Josh Reynolds on a daily basis. Hodkinson makes Reynolds look like a somewhat better player than he is. However, Hodkinson showed none of his ‘ice man’ qualities last night.
The problem for NSW is, who can replace both or either of these halves for game two?
That question itself poses just as many problems as Queensland’s attack did to NSW’s defence last night.
Does Daley call up a rookie like Blake Austin or Adam Reynolds (if fit)? Does he return James Maloney to the side?
One thing is for sure though, NSW need a hero, not someone who is going to hide when his states needs him most.
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