State of Origin Game One: NSW player ratings

Bearfax you are talking about a legend when you talk about Lyons. The problem is they rarely picked the best player to run off him. The second rower who has scored more tries than any other forward at NSWRL/NRL level.

Interesting point B.A. Talented ball distributers need time and for other players to know what their general style is. Cliff Lyons was a perfect example of a master distributer who at rep level found his briliance stunted somewhat because others around him weren't in sync with his style. I believe Quade Cooper had the same problem in the World Cup. Quade seemed to have the same trouble with his first game back with the Reds. Other players weren't prepared for his clever passes and either dropped the ball or weren't iin proper position to receive it. Carney also in his first state rep game was out of sync with others as well and his brilliant play was negated. This style of footballer requires others in the team to be aware and utilise his cunning more effectively and that takes time and practise.

When Glenn Stewart plays for Manly he catches th eball infront so he can pass it on quickly and it keeps the defence in two minds. For NSW he caught ball on the chest and ran the same outside - in line every time. Net result, predicatable attack and Morris and Uate got no ball.

i reckon james moloney should have a crack. his a great team player and really i believe his the man for the number 6. for the blues. i wish there was someone to replace pearce. done nothing in all of his origin games. i agree with nicholas. brett stewart done nothing in that game. he was like plain toast with no butter. minichiello should take that spot for game 2. but i doubt ricky would change stewart and even if he did he would most likely go for dugan then minichiello even though mini deserve that spot more then both of them in the beginning. need bederus and watmoguh. we need team players not stand out players. and them 4 are based on team work

Sorry totally disagree about Stewart and Dugan. Dugan is hot and cold. Sometimes he plays like a champion, other times he's seemingly not interested. You need someone at the back to be reliable, not hot and cold. Perhaps Soward and Carney together could add the spark they need. Hayne at 5/8...no way. All of his good games in rep football have been on the wing. Other than Soward/Pearce issue I wouldnt touch the backline. As for the forwards Buhrer like Carney is a work in progress. Give them a chance to settle in. Otherwise I wouldnt touch them either. Williams will improve with game time and Creagh has the runs on the board. I think all those wanting change have missed the point. This team came close to beating the QLD side and were better than them for much of the game. A few breaks, including questionable try decisions and Jennings copping the only time out from a skirmish not even worthy of more than a penalty, and NSW would have won this one. I think they have the side to beat QLD. Leave them be and let them establish a combination like QLD has established. They did well.

Hayne must play 5/8 and get the ball early and often. Drop Pearce and play Carney at half. Watmough MUST play, goodbye Creagh. Buhrer was an ashtray on a motorbike, replace with power forward maybe Learoyd Lahrs. B.Stewart lacks spark replace with Dugan. Apart from that everyone else played great and we can smash QLD in game 2.

He played safe yes. but didnt get involve. any fullback could have done what brett done. thats a fullbacks role. and i got to agree with you about mini. his trying hard to be the same player like he was in 2005 but his playing better then 2011. i got to disagree with you on one thing. brett aint the best pick for fullback. he plays like a machine for manly and really i would pick him if he play like that for origin but he doesnt. i dont see him shine like he does for his club. i didnt even notice him until he was in the race to beat thaiday doe the ball. but id rather have brett over dugan and morris. both of them got a while to go. robbie was the best player in nsw hands down. he came out with a point to prove and he proved it. i dont mind danny. his experience will help alot. better then kurt gidley that for sure. and the reason why i forgot carney is because i knew he was going to play bad. carney needs to adjust and feel comfortable at where his at so he can play at his best. but there james moloney and jamie soward there so the got some back for that position

That was my reading too, Sam. Hard to blame Morris for following big GI, but the combination with Uate was clearly not there, and he left his winger exposed a couple of times.

Robbie Farah had a great game but he was blowing pretty hard. He needed a rest. Please don't chop and change the team. I say this with the exception of Ben Creagh, who should never be selected, ever. I thought they performed well overall. Just didn't get the bounce of the ball this time. Glenn Stewart defended well, I wouldn't axe him.

I totally agree about Soward and Carney too here's Soward putting in 3 good games last series and dropped for Carney who had a shocker and there is no way if Soward played like Carney he would have been retained for the next game, I too believe if Soward was playing last night NSW would have won - bring in Soward and Watmough.

Sorry nicholas but I can't really agree with much of what you've said. Personally I think B Stewart had a fairly forgettable game but all the options NSW has are flawed in some way, Minichello shows some flair occasionally but is a shadow of the player he once was, Dugan is dynamic but he's got a lot of errors in his game still, B Morris is powerful and fast but new to fullback and still gets caught out once or twice a game in defence even at club level. Brett Stewart wasn't outstanding last night but he also didn't do anything particularly wrong - I reckon he's probably the best choice at the moment. Jamie Burher probably will go but only because we don't need a backup hooker, I think he did OK in his cameo but Farah's an 80min player so that spot should go to another running forward - preferably someone with a bit of x-factor like Mateo. Creagh seems to be getting hammered in the court of opinion here but really did nothing wrong. I don't think he's ideally suited to a bench role but in a fairly limited time on the field he tackled effectively and hit it up the middle without complaint. There's probably better players for this bench role but, as I noted above, the first forward on the chopping block absolutely must be G Stewart. The worst performing NSW player you didn't even mention - Carney. I'm not sure if cutting him is the answer or not but in between the drop balls, missed touch finder and shanked goal kick he barely registered in the game. He has talent but it's going to take some faith for him to retain his spot.

Greg Bird was all origin last night, i thought the ref could have let a couple of things go, big game player.

"There used to be a saying, a champion team will always beat a team of champions. The problem for NSW is that Queensland over the years have created both these into one unit." That is absolutely spot on and is exactly why it may be 7 straight this year.

Morris's job wasn't to mark inglis it was to mark the second chanel from the side which means if Thurston and Inglis run a switch play (which they did numerous times when Uate was 'caught out') then he needs to take Thurston instead, however on numerous times he followed Inglish leaveing Uate 1 on 2. Uate then has to charge up and try and quickly cut off the ball carrier so they can't get the pass away. Thurston, the consumate pro, just puts a pass to his waiting winger in Darius Boyd. My point being, it looks like Uate made the mistakes on the edges, however the actual blame goes on the two men defending inside of him. He actually did the right thing, given the circumstance.

anthony minichiello should replace bret stewart. all that hype about brett yet he doesnt even chase for the high ball. rarely gets involve with play and goal line defence was lazy. really QLD where on the right side of the field and brett is next to the post. i expected alot better. danny berderus should replace jamie burher. his too young and still got alot to learn. anthony watmough to replace ben cragh. the guy was walking on the field. poor performance. i dont why ricky pick him. ricky pick players that didnt even performed good for club over player that player great footy replace them 3 players and then you got a more solid. experienced and energetic team.

Totally agree on Stewart and Bird. I thought Pearce had one of his better origins too, no huge plays but he was always positive with some good runs and good play choices.

Can anyone recall Glenn Stewart having a barnstorming Origin game like he does in club footy ? I've asked around and can't think of him having anything other than the insipid, slow game he has last night. He doesn't look anything like the player he does for manly. Maybe he's not origin type ? Greg Bird on the other hand was outstanding - I thought he was the best on the park. Did a lot of the tough work in the middle of the ruck. I thought Pearce was pretty good. It was a shame he passed to Smith when in the clear. Some big hits in defence and his service was pretty good. Blues kickers in general need to find the turf a bit more regularly. Bit hard to do with Slater as his positional play is so good but maybe this is an area where NSW need to do something out of the box to catch him off guard.

Dont know which game you were watching Will Sinclair but everyone is saying Brett Stewart was one of NSW''s better players and Glen Stewart was solid. Sorry but I think you need a re-think. My opinion is that NSW gave QLD a fright and only lost by 8, with one of their players in the bin giving QLD a bit of a free ride early on. For mine I would stick with most of the players. I know Carney had a shocker and Buhrer struggled and there were a couple of forwards struggling, but I think NSW had QLDs measure for much of the match and were unlucky not to be much closer and even winning. Sorry I dont see the doom and gloom here. You've got a couple of new blokes suffering nerves, an underprepared Williams, a few players not yet playing to their potential such as Jennings, Creagh etc. But the signs were there. Stick with them. I suspect they'll perform much better in the second match and the crowd wont make much difference because it was a QLD supporting crowd in Vic anyway.

hahaha Will I'll be the first. I was wr-wr-wr-wr-wr. I was wr-wr-wr-wr...I was wr-wr-wr-wr. Nah - let's wait and see. he started with a bang in 2009 as well before having an absolute howler in game 2. I will take my hat off to him he was great last night...I felt for him when he missed the 40/20 shot, it was great thinking. Stuart should never have taken him off - NSW lost all mojo when he came off the field. I'd have given him an 8.

No one else was rushing in though. On both occassions Uate came screaming in to take an attacking player that was already covered. You can't blame Morris, when you give him the job of marking Inglis of sticking to Inglis. Uates up and in timing was very poor. All he needed to do was stick on his man ion both occassions and let the inside defenders do their job.