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The NSW team did a celebratory lap of ANZ Stadium following their exciting last-minute win over Queensland.
Retiring captain Paul Gallen kicked the conversion as the final siren sounded, bringing the curtain down on his State of Origin career. There was fist pumping and hugging among the boys in sky blue.
I’m not sure why they were getting so carried away. They are the losers. Again.
As we were reminded when Cameron Smith was awarded the player of the Series and especially as he lifted the shield, Queensland won the State of Origin series for the tenth time in 11 years. While there can be no doubt that this Queensland side has been superb over that period, it is equally fair to say that the New South Wales sides that they have encountered have been mostly ordinary, and often garbage.
It is clearly time for massive change in the NSW ranks, but that last-minute win might fool those in charge into thinking that only minor tinkering is necessary. Winning the game gives the NSWRL hierarchy an excuse to paper over the yawning inadequacies of the team.
Ironically, the best thing that could have happened for the long-suffering Blues fans would have been to lose the final game so as to bring on a clean out.
As the Channel Nine telecast ended Queensland legend Wally Lewis was keen to talk up the Blues for 2017, as was Paul Vautin. They are hoping, with all their being, that the last-minute win will give Laurie Daley a stay of execution and that will in turn lead to the same old being rolled out against them next year.
The lopsided 12-3 penalty count went a long way to getting the Blues over the line. Perhaps referees Gerard Sutton and Ben Cummins are Queensland supporters and were trying to help NSW win, too.
The same two referees that Laurie Daley wanted removed after the 4-4 penalty count in Game 1, who then provided a 7-5 count to Queensland in Game 2, just presided over a penalty count that Barry ‘The Grasshopper’ Gommersall would have been concerned appeared biased.
A lot of Queenslanders will be blowing up about that count. However, I thought the count was pretty fair. Sutton and Cummins were in clear control of the game from start to finish and got most things right. The fact that they had the balls to sin bin Cooper Cronk and Andrew Fifita tells me that they were the right men for the job.
Not that the Nine commentators agreed. While Cooper Cronk clearly held Wade Graham back from getting to the ball in the in goal, once he was sent to the bin Andrew Johns was incredulous.
“You can’t bin a player for that! Not at this level. That’s a ridiculous decision.”
Ray Warren joined in, “It was a tough call, wasn’t it.”
No Ray, it wasn’t. It was inspired refereeing.
And was Johns actually suggesting that the higher the level of game, the less the rules should be properly enforced? By that logic by the time a Test match is played, head high tackles and squirrel grips should be just fine.
The penalty count wasn’t the only lopsided statistic in favour of the Blues. NSW had 14 more sets with the ball, which translated to over nine extra minutes possession than Queensland had. The Maroons had to make 93 more tackles.
Given these stats, the fact that NSW required a try in last minute of the game to win the match should tell those in charge at NSWRL HQ that changes must be made. The Blues should have won by at least 18 points if they were any good at all. In the last ten minutes of the first half the Blues had all the ball against twelve men and they still couldn’t get across the line.
Of course, not all of the NSW players were pedestrian. A number were quite good. The Bulldogs’ Josh Jackson was outstanding. He was superb in defence and constantly troubled the Queensland line in attack. He is my pick for the next NSW captain.
James Tedesco annoyed Blake Ferguson a few times by not passing to him, but Tedesco ran the ball 26 times for 254 metres, more than justifying his inclusion.
Josh Mansour and Wade Graham were full of running and effort. James Maloney has been solid and threatening all series and Origin 3 was no different.
Matt Moylan, after an inauspicious first half where he was targeted in defence, provided line break assists to Wade Graham and the crucial break to Blake Ferguson. Tyson Frizell was solid at lock and scored a great try.
There were few NSW players who were ordinary. Most held their own. However, Robbie Farah doing fifth tackle kicks isn’t a good plan even for the Wests Tigers. Fifita having a brain snap and getting himself binned is the action of a park footballer. While James Tamou and Aaron Woods made okay metres, you have to question how much impact they actually had on the game.
» Read The Roar’s NSW Player Ratings here for more.
At the end of the day it was a dead rubber. There aren’t many other major competitions around the world that play dead rubbers. Cricket does it in long Tests series, half just for the TV airtime.
They are only played in State of Origin because, as the series is played during the NRL season, it must be scheduled in advance. It can’t be dropped without causing chaos, and is too much of of a money-spinner for too many parties. Channel Nine pay a lot of money to get three – not two and maybe three – games each year.
This was the 16th dead rubber game that has been played over all of the 34 three game series. Queensland have won nine of those games and NSW have now won seven. Out of those 16, Origin 3 was only the fourth time that a dead rubber game has been played in Sydney.
The dead rubber does give the winning team the opportunity to humiliate their opponents by completing a clean sweep. There have been seven clean sweeps: Queensland in 1988, 1989, 1995 and 2010, and NSW in 1986, 1996 and 2000.
Queensland were hoping to add to their tally of sweeps and looked likely to do so when Darius Boyd scored with five minutes to go.
Matt Moylan put Blake Ferguson in a hole that ultimately led to Michael Jennings scoring the match winner.
The Blues went wild. So did the crowd. So did true Queensland fans.
Queenslanders in the know will be hoping that the result will mean that in 2017, rather than facing the likes of Nathan Peats, Shannon Boyd, Ryan James, Joey Leilua and Tom Trbojevic, they once more get to run out against the likes of Robbie Farah, Aaron Woods, James Tamou, Josh Dugan and Michael Jennings.
Players they’ve bested many times before and ones they’ll be confident they can best again – even though Thurston, Cronk, Thaiday, Scott, Myles, Lillyman and Smith are getting on into their thirties.
We can only hope that Daley and his selectors don’t see the dead rubber victory as an excuse to once more change nothing. If they do we might as well just give Queensland the bloody shield.