Teams named for City Country clash

That's fair enough.

I think the Country v City concept should be morphed into a Challenge Cup style event. I think that would create greater interest and make league outside of the main urban centres have something meaningful to aim for

Thank god someone has commented this. 2012 was the best team NSW has fielded in a long time. Short of fafita, I believe that the 2012 game 2 team was probably they beat NSW team ever...that is if Tony Williams was in for Merrin. But honestly that was the best side

It should be better if Josh tufua is named in the winger position

Agreed

Defence wins games and also gives players like Hayne the opportunity to shine.

I would say the 2012 Series was NSW best performance in recent times - even though they lost the series, they were the better side that year. Forget 2014 - NSW only won that series due to Jarryd Hayne. 2012 was a real team performance for NSW and was a good mix of youth and experience. The team for Games 2 and 3 of 2012 was: 1.Brett Stewart 2.Jarryd Hayne 3.Michael Jennings 4.Josh Morris 5.Brett Morris 6.Todd Carney 7. Mitchell Pearce 8. Tim Grant 9. Robbie Farah 10. James Tamou 11. Greg Bird 12. Glenn Stewart / Beau Scott 13. Paul Gallen (c) 14. Trent Merrin / Tony Williams 15. Luke Lewis 16. Ben Creagh 17. Anthony Watmough I would make very few changes to the team listed above. Jarryd Hayne was on the wing so is easily replaceable. Carney would be the most difficult to replace.

Brett Stewart for fullback. He will be underdone but can handle it. If you watch Pearce closely you will see he makes a lot of mistakes in attack. NSW needs to work a lot more in attack as that is where we are lacking from the halves

I don't think we can match QLD for class and creativity so i'd adopt the same "out scrap em' game plan. Nothing fancy!.Focus on high completion rate, kick to the corners, relentless line speed.Lots of pressure and niggle. 2 or 3 scoring opportunities will present themselves so hopefully we take them and defend like trojans. Game 1 spine - Dugan, J Reynolds, Hodko and Farah.

Frizell has been brilliant for the Dragons and would go well in the Country side

Yeah, that's the problem. If NSW were to adopt that strategy for Mullen, well, I absolutely have no idea who would best complement his style out of all the available options. Ideally, it would be someone who has a complete game (like Hayne, doesn't have to be on a superstar scale like him though). Stewart is probbaly the closest, but he's likely underdone...and playing for a side that's not going the best (bar last weekend). As for Farah, well I'm buggered trying to even pick a halfback to partner him, let alone a custodian. Pearce and Malonely for you? I was actually impressed with Mitchell on the last half of 2014. It was the best I'd ever seen him play, and the games were not insignificant by any means. Obviously, there's lots of resistance to the Pearce idea out there though.

Sooooooo who's your FB?

It woudln't be because the players picked ahead are better - would it? Just speaking the truth.... Fensom is simply a workhorse - people need to stop using Supercoach as a guide for whether a player is good or not and start actually watching the games.

Pretty tough to call automatic selections of hookers ! Which team doesn't have a top number 9 ( tackling dummy half) ? Although many do seem to be city bred.

Well Inglis gave a preference and we all know how that turned out. If you're born in one state but played your footy in another you should get to choose.

You know, I wonder why Mullen never seems to be in the mix for these thigns...perhaps it was the 2007 experience (when he was nineteen or however bloody old he was). I think 2014 marked a welcome turning point for the Blues where they seemed to mark a given player and then build a team around him that complements hi style (this player being Jarryd Hayne). NSW obviously can't do the same this year, given Hayne is in the US, but they can emulate the same approach. As I see it, there's one and half options here. First, Mullen. For me, he is the best "half" NSW has. All things considered, he has the best mix of temperament, skill-set and creativitty in my opinion, when compared to the other contenders. The trick therefore, is getting a spine around him that complements his play - for me it would probably be Hodkinson as a start. Mullen isn't a player that likes being on the ball the whole time, so you need a guy who can direct the team around while he studies the defence and prepares his options. Out of the halfbacks available, Hodko is probably the best choice. The other option is..well..Robbie Farah, unfortunately. I think Qld are most vulnerable in their middle third ruck defence and apart from guys like Isaac Luke, Farah one of the best in the business at breaking down defences from this area with his running game. Which is all well and good, but to me, Farah doesn;t have the temperament or defensive capability to play Origin. I still remember him whingeing at the ref in the final minutes of a game, a few years back, and then making an error immediately after doing so because he wasn't playing attention. It effectively handed Queensland the game. And this is only one example. Plus, geez, he can miss an important one-on-one tackle.

I am interested in seeing how the combination of James Maloney and Jarrod Mullen travels in this match. If they do well it may be this combination as the halves for the NSW SOO.

Place of birth? No. Peter Sterling, for example, is a Blue through and through and, most importantly, considers himself to be 100% NSW. Just because he was born in Toowoomba doesn't make him a Clydesdale. With the grey area players, get them to sign a statement of state preference, they KNOW whether they are a Maroon or a Blue, Luke Keary certainly does but has been forced into the wrong (potential) jersey.

yep. Peachey played junir footy in Wello. Apparently moved to Sydney before teenage years? Grey area again - what is the rule? Is eligibility based on first senior footy.