State of Origin Game 1 final score: Blues annihilate Maroons to steal series opener

Myles was too busy playing Dirty, and whilst he was up to his usual, he missed NSW running rough shod over QLD on Halliwed Territory. Never mind, JT & Slater won't do that. It's going to be one hell of s second or third Game. Go The Blues?!

It was wonderful to be in The Batchy Blues and witness The Slaughter but with two shames to go, it's anyone's Series. Go The Blues?!

Says two series since 2006

The stupid thing that Queensland did was kick a short line drop out. The score was 12-4. Did Smith have a brain explosion? That was uncharacteristic for them to do that. And when Tedesco scored at the back of that, QLD started to crumble. Yes, O'Neil's fumble was a critical mistake but no one seems to get on Smith for doing that short kick off especially given the fact that they just got out from Half-time and the scoreline at 8 difference.

Thurston has already said this will be his last representative year.

He ran the ball well but his kicking game was poor. To me he looked a bit frantic at times for no reason. Perhaps expectation and pressure made it hard for him to settle early on. He will be better for the run and less pressure on him next game, but he really must improve his kicking game. 50 meter bombs don't place pressure on wingers. He has got a better kicking game but last night he pressured himself into rushing his decisions.

Slater to the wing? You've gotta be kidding yourself and you've gotta be a broncos fan. BOYD to the wing. Gagai to centre. McGuire to prop. Myles back to the bench at manly. Hess, Wallace, Kafusi in for the rest of qlds week forwards

Emcie, this side beats the blues last night 1 Billy Slater 2 Oates 3 Chambers 4 Gagai 5 Boyd 6 Munster 7 Cronk 8 Napa 9 Smith 10 McGuire 11 Kafusi 12 Gillett 13 Papalli 14 Milford 15 Thaiday 16 Hess 17 Wallace The storm spine would be the difference

Yeah true. NSW aren't angels but I didn't see them running 10 metres to throw swinging arms like McGuire did. Certainly not as frequently as McGuire. He's genuinely letting himself down by going overboard with that rubbish. I think he's a good player. He hits hard, he runs hard, he gets quick play the balls, has some good ball skills and plays big minutes. But all this head hunting garbage shows that his mind ain't right. He'd be a much better player if he kept the aggression but forgot about the cheap shots. A lot of young players face that transition. Smart ones do it. I genuinely hope McGuire does too.

A short dropout is risking much though. A regular dropout that goes 50 on the fly normally seee tackle one being taken inside 30 metres and most of the set inside the 20 with an attacking kick on the end. It also saves your team a bit of juice having to follow the ball downfield. Short dropout, the opposition gets the ball 15-20 out, spends most of the set inside the 20 and has an attacking kick at the end of the set but with the bonus of an opportunity of getting the ball back. It's 10-15 metres difference for a couple of tackles. That wasn't why Queensland lost. Lovely cool hand Luke reference though. My favourite all time movie!

Queensland's defense was off, and they couldn't make the metres or counter attack to try and change the terms of the game. Milford was pretty good, but their game plan seemed to be to ignore him. Without asking more attacking questions, NSW could wait for darius boyd to get the ball. Grim stuff, but I should mention that Gagai looked decent and Guerra looked good in the handful of minutes they gave him.

Pearce ? Why ? Scoring try's gets you gaffed ?

I picked it as well Joe , the majority weren't prepared to stick their necks out and predict a NSW win.

Fair Nuff Barry FYI- when I post I've got s 50/50 chance of them appearing online as I'm in s pretty remote location with just myself, a really crisp broadband connection. A solid stockpile of Jim Beam n Coke and 3 Blond 55kg female Scandinavian 20 something year old farm hands to keep me company. It's a Tuff life, I know. Unfortunately tonight my 3 offsiders knew nothin about SOO and seemed intent on offering me vodka and foot massages all night instead of letting me watch the bloody footy!! Lucky I recorded the game on my hard drive and can watch it again tomorrow when the girls are in town replenishing the Beam supply and collecting some more massage oil from the local general store. To make thing worse -my internet keeps dropping out $&@%#*><£€!! So as result of all this-I got nobody to share the adrenaline with. Go NSW!!!! So I end up having to go on-line to have a rant cause the 3 blond babes all are desperate for a piece of my attention and amongst all this pressure a farm doesn't run itself now does it?? Besides all that ---- Joe did bag and RUBBISH the selection/s of Tedesco and Gagai and let's be honest- behind Fifitta, those 2 were best on field tonight which illustrates his insights fragile and pretty shaky at best. Which goes to show his bull S$&T predictions are at best guessing or regurgitation of comments read or heard online/mainstream media. I might be remotely located but we've all got internet and LBH spruiking readily available predictions about a game from MMM podcasts and the like- then boasting when they occasionally come true is s but rich.... Even for a country bloke like me!! If you want to make bold statements online - IMO they should be more articulate and perhaps original?? P.s Go NSW!!

I also thought he was going pretty good at the time . A cuppla hiccups but nothing major , and picked up a four pointer under the posts to swing the momentum NSW way just on halftime .

I'm a Tigers fan, but Woods was probably one of our weakest. They'd be mad to drop anybody at all, but that bloke just needs to eat some raw steak, get involved in some pre-game face-slapping or some bloody thing. Agree that Pearce went well, but once AGAIN, short kicking game glaringly poor. Andrew Johns or somebody needs to get into camp and drill some basics into these muppets (e.g. kicking grubbers that grubber). Our only forced dropout was from none other than our utility back rower.... (And yes I realise he's an ex 5/8 and a good one at that. He's an unsung asset for us)

Definitely -- the only negative for NSW is the realisation that all this could have been possible by dropping Gallen and Farah years ago. Farah had a complex about Cameron Smith and tried to match him and came off worse too many times -- Peats simply played distributor, his own simple whole-hearted game, and it was more than enough. Long may the little fellow reign. Could have lived without Dugan for much of the game until that tackle to save the try. Tedesco MOM.

Yep Joe was spot on with his assement on how the game would play out. I was desperate to agree with him but didn't want to jinx the general feeling most had. QLD tend to turn up when their backs are against the wall. But you could see this game was NSWs to lose. Joe had no skin in the game but was balanced when it came to Cronks form. He looks like this year his mind is on getting married.

I disagree. I saw this as a massive brain explosion from one of the coolest heads in the game. It demonstrated that he was doing something desperate and was feeling the (considerable) pressure. He gambled a lot just to try and get his guys some possession as they were tuckered. Because they were old and unfit and some will now be dropped accordingly. He shouldn't be thinking about saving the defence running. Should be hoofing it 50m then getting up there and smashing the daylights out of the kick returner. Instead we get what we saw here last week. Which, is the way he wants. So, he gets it. Nobody is opting for a short line dropout in such situations, for obvious reasons. There was still a full 30 minutes on the clock!

Smith has to retire this year. If he's not kicking and running the ball from dummy half, he needs to go