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I’ve got a heavy chest Roarers, with lots of rugby league stuff weighing me down. The heaviest burden comes via the bitterly disappointing NSW team announced by Laurie Daley and Co.
Wearing my blue-ish cap (because I live in the state), there are too many out-of-form, under-done or injury-plagued Blues heading for Origin 2 in Melbourne.
I predicted an easy Maroons win in Origin 1 in Sydney – and it could have easily have been so – but a solitary one-point win by the Queenslanders has allowed the Blues selectors to paper over the cracks and once again pick a team dripping with conservatism.
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» Queensland team for Origin 2 – expert reaction
Undoubtedly, NSW will pump up and send out another highly defensive outfit at a time when they should be trying every which-way to find the try-line, and get the scoreboard humming.
Hello rampaging Raider Blake Austin? Nup. Untried, couldn’t possibly contribute to the NSW cause. He could have been a dangerous wild card for sure and he richly deserved a shot from the bench.
By naming the alarmingly out-of-form Trent Hodkinson and a non-five-eighth in Mitchell Pearce, NSW start well behind the eight ball. Again.
This pair went OK for 40 minutes at ANZ Stadium in Game 1, but the problem was the game went for 80. OK is nowhere good enough at Origin level but coach Laurie Daley felt that OK was OK. It was not.
Both halves went MIA when the series opener needed a hero. By full-time, NSW got a zero from this ordinary pairing, the not-so-shrewd selectors’ choice.
Oh, and the Maroons No. 7, Cooper Cronk, proved to be the match-winner. He was highly visible when the others were either shrinking or hiding.
I can understand why Paul Gallen was chosen, but even though he has the biggest motor of any player in rugby league history, Origin games are something else. The NSW skipper will struggle, perhaps big-time, as the game hits the hour mark. He is not match-fit. Will pretend he’s going OK, when he is absolutely stuffed.
As for gambling on Robbie Farah at No. 9, that’s playing with fire.
For starters he has had a very ordinary season at the Tigers and is carrying a much-publicised shoulder injury; this version of Farah is not the guy the Blues should be looking to in one of the key distribution points of the field. A really bad call to pick him.
While I’m at it, why is Michael Jennings an automatic recipient of a Blue jumper? What does he do in Origin? Does he make breaks, go in search of work, does he really get involved? Just three tries in 13 games for a so-called prolific try-scorer? Not good enough.
The selectors should have strongly considered South Sydney livewire Dylan Walker. Maybe next year, maybe not. Loyalty, old chap.
The Blues have again elected to run without a utility player on the bench. If that’s not rolling the dice with so many injury and fitness questions over the team, I am completely unfamiliar with dice-rolling.
The omission of the damaging and unpredictable Andrew Fifita is very strange, I was surprised that Parramatta’s Will Hopoate was retained on the wing after offering precious little in Origin 1.
And the Blues will be fielding a fullback with absolutely no passing skills. He doesn’t know how to offload, never has. Josh Dugan had one chance to do so in the NRL game against Canterbury – it could have been a try – but no, he went himself.
Manly’s try-scorer and try-maker Brett Stewart could buy and sell this very limited footballer.
By now, you may have the impression I do not fancy NSW’s chances of squaring the series at the MCG. I do not, and the NSW selectors should be grilled unmercifully in the aftermath. But will that happen?
Nope. Zippo chance of that as ‘Bozo’, Lozza et al are protected species with the current media throng.
When Queensland takes an inevitable 2-0 series lead, how about the fellas from the media ask some hard and probing questions, and break the mould. Surprise us all.
The second thing I wanted to mention here is a couple of weeks old, but could easily re-surface in any game, any time, including the 2015 NRL grand final.
Does anyone recall the Cowboys vs Sea Eagles game in Round 12? Less than five minutes to go and the Cowboys cleanly and clearly won a scum against the feed to go right on the attack. The ball was recalled. Why? No explanation.
Travel further back to Round 10 and it is late in the Knights vs Tigers arm wrestle at Hunter Stadium.
Newcastle cleanly and clearly won a scrum against the feed in their own quarter and they were allowed to play on. They went the length of the field and eventually scored the game-clincher. As many folks ask in the text message classics: WTF?
As a genuine league fan, I’d like some urgent clarification on this rule/non rule. It could ultimately determine a team’s finals fate or even the title deciding game.
The third bee in my baseball cap is Channel Nine and their Queensland ‘cheerleaders’.
OK, we all realise that Nine must cover north-of-the-NSW-border games on Friday nights for ratings, but their commentators collectively suck, and there are a couple who have turned sucking-up into an art form. They have been making Friday night ‘projectile vomit time’.
When criticism is due, we get nothing. When a Queensland team happens to lose, shock horror! When the most innocuous thing runs in a Queensland team’s favour – woah! “This is sensational. Absolutely brilliant!”
This drivel is way too hard to hear for my money. At my place, the mute button will be employed from now until season’s end.
And you know what? I’ll miss absolutely nothing.
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