Greg Inglis: Handy footballer, but not captaincy material

Totally agree, but the media needs a story, the game needs heroes, and thats the spin. The public swallow and regurgitate everything they read and hear. Inglis is a follower and not a leader, most of his career he's been a confidence player who excels in a team on the front foot, not when it's down in the trenches. Has anyone heard the guy speak ? he could barely spell his last name let alone thoughtfully and eloquently outline a narrative to inspire. I was gobsmacked when Inglis was talked about as Captain over Slater but perhaps QLD knew Slater was most likely to miss the match. Slater would be the Captain in a heart beat, thoughtful, eloquent and intelligent and the best fullback the game has seen. The difference between the 2 could not be more significant.

Yes, Inglis is overrated - just a bad-tempered guy with an attitude problem. But the biggest problem the game faces is that there's no-one with the class, style, and respect, of the retiring Smith, Cronk, and Slater - most of the rest of them look, act, dress, and talk, like criminals or apprentice criminals - certainly not the type of sportsmen that most mothers would want their sons to emulate.

It'll be interesting to see who the new Australian captain is at years. I would have thought that as a proud New South Welshman, Lance would be supportive of one of the game's greatest current players (and a Bowraville boy to boot!) getting the nod, but it appears that years of beatings in the State of Origin arena have led to his sense of perspective being severely warped. It appears that you have disregarded many years of exceptional leadership at club level for South Sydney in favour of a highly subjective analysis of the events of one game, in which your main quibble appears to be that Inglis tackled a few of the young Blues debutants too hard for your liking. Maybe the fact that Queensland looked comparatively "rudderless" when compared with last years team (even when they were arguably the more dominant side for portions of the game), could be put down to the collective loss of the entirety of the first-choice spine, widely regarded as the best the Maroons have ever had, rather than anything that Inglis could have done? I'm not rejecting the premise of this article, but the completion of this series would probably be a better time to reflect on the merits of GI's leadership at state level.

Chambers has been a merchant of niggle for a long time but he usually maintains his playing performance. On Wednesday night he seemed focused on the niggle at the expense of his performance. He averages 3 missed tackles per game in club games this year yet missed ten tackles in Origin 1. What made it worse was the recipient of most of his sledging/niggle continued on seemingly unfazed. The result was a rookie representative centre clearly outplayed the incumbent Australian centre.

A while back Dylan Walker annoyed the hell out of Curtis Scott from the Storm and Scott wacked him breaking an eye socket. Scott got plenty of support for this assault on Walker but what about Chambers who does the same thing to Latrell Mitchell in his 1st SOO appearance. Apparently according to some on this forum Walker had it coming to him. Do they also believe latrell Mitchell should have hit Chambers and broken a bone in his head because he also had it coming to him? Maybe Mitchell is wiser than he seems and certainly much wiser than those who thought Scott was justified in his actions.

I'm going to have a guess here that Lance has never played a game of Rugby League in his life... ?

Haha, I'm glad you're enjoying the "hiding" (10pts with the last try scored late?). He shut down the NSW A right side - win. 120m ran and very strong ones at that. He was offside for the Turbo hit but save a split second Qld get on top in that set. You shouldn't discount effort for the result. Had he played like Roberts, I would agree with you but he was the 2nd best on the park just on the losing side.

Very good player. Just not, a great.

Yes, opinions can be wrong and not just because they vary from mine. Have a read around, he's a walk up start for Aust Captain nominated by more knowledgeable people then you and I. What cheap shots? He gave up one penalty trying to inspire his team but then defended that mistake. Do you really think the only reason he took off for that hit was the fact it was Turbo? He hit Cleary because he came into the line. They were hard shot but neither are cheap shots and Freddie and Cleary agree. Otherwise 120m ran and only missed 1 tackle. However, facts doesn't really matter do they. I've now read your other replies and this is far more about the person then his performance isn't it?

Rene, it's not a comment I make lightly nor without precedent. Rd1 against Warriors, they played well but NZ would've beaten most. Against Penrith, 14 - 0 up, GI goes off and they lose. The next few weeks without him they are poor but when he returns they go on a very good run only losing to the broncos. I made mention back then that, for what ever reason, Souths lift with him in the team. It's not his doing for sure but good leaders inspire the group, not do everything themselves.

Matt, i think you’ve run out of all logical arguments to justify giving Greg Inglis the captaincy of the Qld side, especially based on his performance in Game one...so now you’re just being ridiculous. Still waiting to hear one thing that Inglis did in Game One to inspire his players. I don’t count cheap shots standing way offside as anything inspiring, as you may have guessed by now. You’ve ignored the comments I’ve made on his performance in State of Origin One. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Inglis declares this will be his last State of Origin series as well if NSW take the chocolates in Game Two. He’s been a great player, but he’s becoming more of a liability with each and every game.

I even heard Inglis is terrible at knowing when to bring the spinner on.

On what basis? See below where I laid out his career achievements.

Yep, he was poor with his dummy half service as well. And he struggled to get to NSW's kicks on the full. And his rotation of the bench left a bit to be desired. Plus his pies in the canteens were too expensive and bit cold.

It must be frustrating for Lordy. the same thing happened when he spotted Dally Messenger as a youngster.

Surely the most curious part of all of this is why Inglis targeted Tommy T? Did word get out that if you break Tom Trbojevic you break NSW? Does he owe him money? Was there an incident at the cafeteria earlier in the evening over the last piece of lasagne? The mind boggles.....

how does a centre take control of a game? do you think Inglis is going to go into first receiver and setup plays and kick to the corners or something?

Good point. Further to that, and hopefully as a Blue supporter, further evidence of Fittler getting the 'rubbish' out of this Blues side was the way Lattrell Mitchell kept it together whilst Chambers was mouthing off at him. In the end Mitchell outplayed Chambers and totally showed him up.

I didn't think Inglis' hit on Tommy T was a cheap shot. Chamber's kneeing Cook was the biggest cheap shot in the whole match.

Fair call on the skinny 10. More than half Inglis' run metres were post contact. That feels unusual for a centre. It sounds like they got to him really early and then he was able to plough along for a bit with players hanging off him, but never had the space for anything else. As I said earlier, Fittler did a good job limiting the space out wide and making it difficult for the QLD halves to release their three quarter line.