The New South Wales Blues couldn’t pick up the victory in Game 3 of the 2018 State of Origin series, but they did lift the shield for the first time since 2014 last night. Here are my player ratings for the Blues.
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1. James Tedesco – 7.5
Not the fullback’s best game in the sky blue, but he still came up with some huge plays. Despite throwing the pass which led to Valentine Holmes’ 90-metre effort, he scored a try, had a hand in others and ran the ball well all night. His defence on the goalline, particularly during the first half, was also outstanding.
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2. Tom Trbojevic – 8
Trbojevic put in one of the best winger’s performances you are likely to see at this level. He scored the Blues first try on an intercept, but ended up with more than 230 metres, line breaks and a number of positive plays to his name.
Trbojevic has well and truly shown he belongs at his level.
3. Latrell Mitchell – 5
Mitchell will develop into a fantastic Origin player, but I’m still not sold on him after last night. To be fair, the Blues spent most of the first half in defence and his attacking opportunities were limited. Mitchell made some big tackles on Will Chambers, but also let the first try in during the first half.
He still has the odd brain snap as well. A dumb penalty early in the game almost led to an early try for Queensland.
4. James Roberts – 5.5
As the story will be for so many of the Blues, he defended really well during the first half of the game. Like Mitchell though, I’m no convinced about his Origin credentials. For Roberts to be a high-quality player, he must have space to work with the ball. That’s rare at Origin level and stunted his attack during Game 3.
5. Josh Addo-Carr – 6
Addo-Carr struggled for opportunities throughout the game, but did have a couple of dangerous-looking runs. To go with that, his defensive effort was first-class for most of the match. He ended up with 150 metres and almost could have been the hero after a break in the dying minutes of the contest.
6. James Maloney – 5.5
This was Maloney’s worst game of the series by a considerable distance really. He ended up in the sin bin, wasn’t able to control the New South Wales attack with his attack and struggled to play consistently. He made some bad errors in attack as well, leaving the ball behind on a pass at one point during the late second half.
He had some good plays as well, but it’s not enough to justify a high rating.
James Maloney of the Blues (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
7. Nathan Cleary – 6.5
Cleary proved exactly how good he is during the ten-minute period when Maloney was in the sin bin. He stood up and led the Blues team around the park, slotting a couple of high-pressured conversions during that period as well.
While he could have done more in the last 20, especially with the struggles of Maloney, it’s hard to be too criticial on the young half.
8. David Klemmer – 6.5
Klemmer had a really solid first stint of the game. He was one of the Blues best, but when he came back for his second, he ruined what would have been a higher rating with a poor second half.
The big Bulldogs prop was pulled up for a trip and and missed a crucial tackle against Ben Hunt who took Queensland to victory.
9. Damien Cook – 7.5
This is the first time Cook hasn’t led the tackle count for the series. He still finished second with 37 though, putting in another big performance. His attack hasn’t been at the same level as it was in Game 1 across the rest of the series, but the hooker has barely put a foot wrong in his debut series.
10. Paul Vaughan – 4
The way Brad Fittler has used his front rowers throughout this series has been somewhat confusing. They all seem to have spent far too much time on the bench and Vaughan’s effort in Game 3 was no different.
Moved into a starting role, he had just one run in his first 20-minute burst, and while he tackled strongly, it’s hard to say he impacted the game greatly.
11. Boyd Cordner – 7
It was a captain’s knock to say the least from Cordner. He was effective with the ball and hit hard in defence. Interestingly, he only ended up with 91 metres and 21 tackles, but everyone of them were done at a hundred miles an hour as he tried to inspire his side back into the game.
His defensive plays during the first half when the Blues were under so much pressure with only 30 per cent possession were superb as well.
Boyd Cordner of the Blues (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
12. Tyson Frizell – 6
Hard to get a read on the game Frizell played. He didn’t really put a foot wrong, defending well and doing everything right when he got the opportunties. The problem for the second rower was the lack of opportunities with the ball. By the end of the match he had just 68 metres from seven runs to go with a swathe of tackles.
It screams maybe he didn’t go searching for it enough, but Frizell did something close to his job.
15. Jake Trbojevic – 8
Given his first start this series, Trbojevic made a huge impact on the Blues. He never stopped trying, ending the game with 43 tackles and plenty of handy touches on the ball. It’s hard to see him not being in the Blues – and indeed Australian – number 13 jersey for most of the next decade.
13. Jack de Belin – 5.5
De Belin was the man put onto the bench so Trbojevic could start and unfortunately he didn’t really have the required impact from the pine. He ended up with 53 metres and 18 tackles, which, given his minutes is hardly terrible, but there is a nagging feeling he could have done more.
14. Tariq Sims – 6
Sims came off the bench at a million miles per hour and got the Blues off to a great start in the second half. His aggression is a key reason I had him in my 17 before Game 1 and he showed what he can do during Game 3. Unfortunately, his rating is dragged down by the one the craziest penalties you’ll ever seen on a rugby league field.
I mean, fancy tackling the marker after you played the ball. You can’t make that stuff up.
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16. Angus Crichton – 5.5
Let the pressure get to him when he threw an offload over the sideline instead of hitting James Roberts who likely would have gone on to score in the corner. Still, the rest of his was pretty solid.
17. Tyrone Peachey – 5
Again, it’s hard to work out what Fittler’s plan is with the utility in the Blues side. He got 18 minutes in Game 3, which is more than he got in either of the first two and looked dangerous when he did enter the fold, but it’s hard to rate Peachey as anything more than average when he came on as late as he did against very tired bodies.
Being dangerous is exactly what was expected and anticipated of him at that point.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Cook was as much to blame for the Munster linebreak as Klemmer. There’s a camera angle from behind where you can see that a Klemmer makes more ground to Munster than Cook. It happens. That’s why teams run their quick players through the middle of the ruck. Josh McGuire made a worse play in the Tedesco try and still overall had a good game. But the trip was a blatant trip. It’s disappointing because he’s largely got that rubbish out of his game. Let’s be generous and call it a poor decision made under fatigue
The Barry
Roar Guru
A front rower who plays 25 minutes and has one run is outstanding?
Footy 101
Guest
Your player ratings were as poor as the choice for the Wally Lewis Medal, although based on your ratings you probably voted for Billy too. Paul Vaughn was outstanding, bit hard to run when QLD have all the ball.
diamond
Guest
Maloney was abysmal he was Qlds best player he wont be there next year. NSW supporters finally have a team we can like after losing the dickheads including Dugan, Ferguson, Gallen, Fifita et all. Freddy is a champion bloke just not sure he can coach this level..
Robert F
Guest
I think people need to watch the play again to notice that Klemmer was calling the player on the inside of him across by pointing to one of the QLDers thinking it would be an inside ball play. Yes Klemmer should have made the tackle but the inside man needed to move across quicker to plug the whole incase the inside ball was thrown. Either way Munster made a great step and wrong footed Klemmer but had he thrown the inside ball to player running onto it would have yeilded the same result. As for the trip.... yes it was dumb moving across the way he did and ultimately causing hunt to fall but i have seen much worse than that for a so called trip....... just go youtube Josh Reynolds for more recent blatant trips to see what a trip actually is. Klemmer steps out sideways with bent leg like a block play and one guy on here is trying to say it should have been a sendoff.....
Tom
Guest
Agreed on Turbo Albo, and I'm a Manly supporter - I thought for a bit I was the only one who noticed the missed support runners? Everyone else seems to be giving him pretty solid ratings for the game. Crichton was in over his head. I really don't see why he is there over Josh Jackson or Wade Graham, both of whom didn't deserve to get dropped.
Tom
Guest
I've said it before and will say it again - Manly's problem is the second tier, not top tier talent. The Trbojevics, Taupau, DCE, Dylan Walker, and Api Koroisau are at least as good as their equivalents in the 07-13 squad. The problem is the lack of guys like Joe Galuvao, Glenn Hall, Jason King, Mark Bryant etc who came in and provided solid performances to complement the superstars.
Matt H
Roar Guru
It's a trip every day of the week. In the old days it was a send off offence. Hunt wasn't even looking at Klemmer so how he took a dive I'm not sure. And of those 8 penalties we have a blatant trip, Sims crash tackling the marker, Maloney taking our a kick chaser and copping 10 minutes and Mitchell engaging in a blatant shoulder charge in the first set of six. Add to that the fact that the team with most possession always get more penalties because they have the ball and the 8-3 penalty count suddenly looks just fine. And yes I support QLD, so I've had a pretty good decade. How about you? Given where you're from I'd imagine you have had a great decade supporting the Blues, the Wests Tigers and GWS. Maybe you need a lie down.
Adam
Guest
Crichton was abysmal last night. Looked out of his depth and should be rated a 3 at the most. Butchered a try scoring opportunity and didn't make any impact off the bench. Roberts has speed, but nothing else, and despite his brain snap I thought Sims went ok. Klemmer seems a bit overrated to me, gets all this hype but doesn't really do a lot and comes up with some dumb plays and lazy defence.
Albo
Guest
I think that your Klemmer example sums up nearly the whole NSW team. Most have been very good at times , but most have also had flaws in their games that stopped the team from completely dominating QLD in this series. Klemmer was generally great in his role over three matches, but then last night cost us two tries with poor defence on Munster and a trip that cancelled out what would have been a NSW try . Throw in Turbo's butchering of three more 2nd half tries by not passing the ball to support players after making great line breaks, or Tedesco's huge error for the intercept try to Holmes instead of laying on a soft try to Mitchell, and you can see why a white wash was thrown away last night, by players who were generally strong throughout the series. Hopefully a lot is learned by the experience for next year.
Harvey Wilson
Roar Rookie
Jake Trbojevic should have started every game. Cook was outstanding in the whole series. Souths have themselves a great player.
kk
Guest
Well done Albo. Post of the series.
Albo
Guest
Well I thought Tedesco had a shocker last night along with Turbo and Maloney. Our three best players from games 1 & 2 had shockers, not because of their general play , but because of the crucial errors all three of them made that ensured NSW missed the clean sweep. And their ratings here are way too high. Take Tedesco, he threw a ridiculous pass that turned what should have been a try to Mitchell into a try for Holmes to start the rot. Then he was nowhere in the picture for some cover defence on Holmes for his second try. Jurbo was left to try to do that. Then Teddy rarely appeared in any backline sorties that NSW tried to put on in that 2nd half. Cleary was left with no one to pass to on the right but Crichton who was completely lost most of the series, or a cut out pass to Roberts who was well marshalled by QLD last night. Then Turbo made some great breaks in the 2nd half but died with the ball on every occasion with players in support outside him. I make it three tries he butchered which undid all the good work of his line breaks. Then Maloney was off his game all night, with dropped balls , poor passes and the 10 minute sin binning. He did pull off a couple of great try saving tackles however. I think these three players along with Fittler's questionable interchange tactics , were the chief cause of NSW not taking this series 3-0. Hopefully plenty is learned for next year. For me, I thought Jake T was the top NSW player last night and probably vying for the man of the series with Damian Cook. Of the other forwards most did their job , but without creating any domination , perhaps because of the way the players were interchanged by Freddy ? I can't help but feel NSW generally had the right players to have completely dominated this series, but I think tactics in general and some really poor execution last night , ruined that plan.
Emcie
Roar Guru
Yeah, Matt H! This site is only for New South Wailers!
parkhacker
Roar Rookie
No, Hunt ran into Klemmer and fell over just like a Neymar soccer dive.That gave the crap ref an excuse to deny our great try.What was the penalty count 8-3 Maroons way I think I heard just to give King Slater a good send off.We did make a few errors at critical times like pressing their line and making a stupid pass gave them 6 points like in previous game.Maloneys worst game ever, Klemmer as usual our best forward always going forward and good in defence.Cordner had average game leading from the front .Tedesco tried hard all night but without the ball what could he do. Just heard on radio that Slater made Man of the Match and Man of the Series.What a joke he missed Game 1 and on LOSING side.When you hear that Lockyer,Meninga and Daley make the award what else would you expect.Good on you Blues we won series and I hope I never see Slater in the series again. To Matt H if you are Maroons supporter stay off this site.
Emcie
Roar Guru
Yeah, Slater was constantly putting himself through holes around the ball. A bit more awareness from the outside backs and QLD could've racked up a decent buffer
Matt H
Roar Guru
Hi Scott, genuine question and not disagreeing with your ratings. Did you find time to watch the game again before doing the ratings. Or did you get confused by your lack of sleep and in your first draft have Chris Froome as a 7 for a solid defensive effort?
Matt H
Roar Guru
You have a point Paul. DCE managed the game very well in the first half and QLD dominated the forward battle. But both DCE and Munster on their respective sides were just running sideways towards the touch lines, hoping for something to happen. And Gagai had no idea how to set up his winger to go in the corner. And even though the Blues were out on their feet QLD failed to hammer the Blues with balls back on the inside to Slater. So yes, the Blues were defensively great during that period, but QLD didn't throw as much at them as they could have.
Matt H
Roar Guru
He stuck his foot out. It was a classic trip and the second dumbest play on the night.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Yes, but there would have been 60 other tackles on the night from both sides, where the defenders held and attacker down and could have been penalised but weren't . Particularly when NSW were defending grimly in the first half and when QLD were doing the same in the second. And yet only one player thought it was a good idea to drive-tackle the marker 10 metres backwards.