It’s hard to say that Queensland overcoming the odds to defeat NSW is surprising anymore because it happens a lot.
The manner of the upset was classic Queensland: they seem to be on the ropes, somehow jag tries and then see the game out with resilience.
It’s that ‘Queenslander’ thing that everyone thinks is about something in the water north of the border, they build ’em tough up there, pride in the jersey, except it never has been about that: it’s about planning, execution and smarts.
Sure, you need the resilience bit to withstand the charge that comes late, but you need the intelligence and gameplan to give you something to defend. In that sense, this was Queenslander par excellence.
There’s a muscle memory to these things. Working as a collective is not something you can craft in ten days, but it is something that you can get players to buy into.
So park the ‘gutless’ and ‘wanted it more’. Queensland played smarter. Here’s how.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
The first half was a little confusing
The first half was very strange: it felt like NSW were better and had more chances to score, but all the stats told you otherwise. The eye test said Blues, the eye test plus stats said equal, the scoreboard said (by a conversion) Maroons.
NSW had two tries struck off – correctly – but generally looked more like they would score, which is hard to quantify but, to this observer at least, was the case.
For the first 15 minutes in particular, Queensland seemed to be struggling in both execution and strategy.
They kicked very, very poorly and put most of their traffic down the Brian To’o wing, which was presenting NSW with strong set starts and, consequently, two thirds of the territory.
That all changed when Pat Carrigan came on. The Brisbane lock was outstanding as a middle, topping the Maroons metre chart at half-time despite only entering the game in the 16th minute.
The post-contact metres told a tale: prior to Carrigan’s entry, Queensland were well behind, but by half-time, they were ahead. The momentum shift in the ruck was palpable, the kicking was afforded more time to be better and the geography of the game, for want of a better phrase, was shifted.
But yet: Queensland created less. Their one try owed a little to fortune, with a pass missing its target but ending up in space, while as mentioned, the Blues had several opportunities more.
In the end, equality in tries was probably fair enough, and perhaps represented the ability of Billy Slater to wrest back control. It would be telling.
NSW had no plan B
It was much discussed that Isaah Yeo was the central player for NSW’s setup, especially in the attacking third of the field.
He took what appeared to be a bad bang to the head on the first play of the game and was allowed to stay on. One suspects that in a regular NRL game, that would not have been the case.
Regardless, Yeo was notably off-colour, perhaps as a result of the collision, and it had a serious effect on the cohesion levels in the Blues’ attack.
Queensland can’t be discounted from this. They jammed up on Jarome Luai: essentially, rather than stopping Yeo with the ball, they cut down any player he might have been able to pass to.
The ball-playing lock wasn’t able to ball-play: he averages one run for every two passes at club level, but tonight, that was much lower. He was totally shut down.
Dane Gagai had a curate’s egg of a performance. He missed ten tackles, more than anyone else in maroon, but was often the one putting in the line speed effort to shut down the passing lane.
Without Yeo’s influence, the attack was often rudderless. On multiple occasions, the last tackle play fell apart and the structure dissipated: Damien Cook, always ready to jump out, got stuck in the awkward middle ground of jumping out a few steps, before passing anyway.
Queensland’s experienced heads lead the attack
There’s a lot to be said for ‘been there, done that’. As much as NSW didn’t have a Plan B, it looked more and more as the game went on that Queensland had a detailed game plan and executed it.
Billy Slater killed his interchanges, in particular, timing the injection of certain players to slightly before Brad Fittler sent his in, gaining a jump on his opponents.
The latter end of the first half and the first fifteen minutes of the second half were masterclasses in game management, both in terms of the timing of substitutions and the actions of key players.
Slater almost set the game up into four quarters: two slow, to start and to end, and two fast, either side of half time.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
In Cameron Munster, Daly Cherry-Evans and Ben Hunt – plus Slater in the box – there is knowledge and experience in spades, and the Maroons leveraged the lot of it.
Hunt, who started and finished the game, was able to direct from dummy half and essentially lead the team, before changing with Harry Grant, who played a lot more direct on the back of fresher forwards from the bench.
When Grant was on, DCE and Munster became the dominant players on the field. It’s notable that they were 1 and 2 in terms of ball possessions, well ahead of the third man, Kalyn Ponga.
NSW often appeared to be improvising, whereas Queensland were far more patient in their execution.
Muzz
Guest
Why wasn't Wighton another kicking option on the 5th? Madness coaching.
steveng
Roar Rookie
The Blues lost the game in the first 15 of the 2nd half, they were a better side in the fist and Qld were just lucky with that Cobo kick and Gags doing his usual SOO thing, which Gags seems to do every SOO. IMO the Foxx has to be there, yes Tupou had a great game, hard runs good in the air but, he just hasn't got the wow factor that the Foxx can give us, as the Fox has all that and more and especially when we spread it out wide and especially with the kick and chase, that is his specialty. That is what we missed as when Wighton made that break in the 2nd half, if the Fox was there he would have iced that 100%. The Marrons just outsmarted and out played the Blues and especially Munster was allowed far too much of his nonsense with stealing balls, wrestling, wiggling and dancing around, where at one stage about 6 Blues couldn't touch him same with Grant. Then you have die hard efforts from again Munster who saved allot kicking situations in their 10m and was everywhere, then add Holmes who was outstanding and Ponga and what chance do you have? This is all happening while Cleary had a bad day with the boot, couldn't get it on target on the 5th missed a conversion and was just off, as Qld were in his face for 80min and then Luai didn't do much and To'o was contained with high kicks and wasn't given a chance and the Blues were virtually relying on one outs and didn't have the magic of Trel :laughing: or Turbo. I though 100% that we will win this in the 2nd half but, that first 15 was a shocker and was the decisive factor why the Blues had no chance at 12-4 and then 16-4. Never mind, it will be different G2 or will it? :laughing:
steveng
Roar Rookie
Don't include GI as he should have been a Blue all along :silly: Kempsey is still in NSW
astro
Roar Rookie
Go back and look at some of those NSW teams from around the 2010s... Every year, Qld were running out Smith, Cronk, Slater, Inglis, Thurston etc vs NSW teams which included guys like Pearce, Peter Wallace, Terry Campese, Jamie Soward, Todd Carney and Josh Reynolds, in the halves. I fail to believe that anyone with a degree of common sense from NSW thought these Qld teams were 'inferior'.
Rob
Guest
I think in 11 of those 12 series NSW started the series as favourites? 2-1 results always meant NSW were going to turn the tables next time?
JennyFromPenny
Guest
Was a great game and could have gone either way, even though Qld were dominant for most of it, so well done to them. They probably should have won regardless of tries disallowed. Not so disappointed to go down, because that's Origin, but definitely disappointed that Panthers players were not able to play the normal Panthers ad-lib style. Felt like they were under very strict orders to do this, this, and this tackles 1-5 and then kick on the last. I also think it was a big mistake to have Tedesco as captain when he is not a leader. The only thing he likes to be in charge of is holding onto the football.
Adam
Roar Guru
The problem that they have is how do you counter the 7 getting jammed all night? They didn't really pick a ball playing 1 and Luai's strength is off the front foot opposition sliding kind of player, rather than grafting. They do have Yeo but he lacks a kicking game. Their service from dummy half is not good enough and Cook is not a kicking or generally a passing threat. Where the Maroons have the advantage is that all of the 1,6,7 and 9 are passing as well as either kicking or running threats. That's a 3rd of the team who are either running, passing or kicking and all 5 that played that position last night wanted to get their hands on the ball. I'd be interested in how many rucks Ponga played acting half. I think he has a tendency to be lazy, but he was active last night and provided crisp service in place of Hunt/Grant when needed
Redcap
Roar Guru
True - but I'm sure Slater would've done things differently in an ideal world, without injuries and reshuffles. Cotter was very good.
Justin
Guest
I remember an Australian game against Tonga a few years ago. The Tongan’s had Joe blow & his mate in the halves. Not being disrespectful to them. But they didn’t have anyone special in the halves. The big Tongan players were dominating the Australian forwards. The worst player on the field for Australia was Munster. He was running across the field & in circles. Then doing ridiculous passes , to give Tonga the ball back . You guys are talking about him as if he’s the best ever player? When everything isn’t going his teams way in a game, he’s just mortal too. Just as he was in the finals last season.
astro
Roar Rookie
"QLD have always been viewed south of the border as an inferior team." Seriously??? I think losing 11 out of 12 series might have changed this line of thinking for most NSW fans...
Rob
Guest
Cleary’s blockers weren’t taking out kick pressure players last night? Like Johns maybe Cleary shines when things are going his way with the officiating and team mates dominating their opposites. Munster was a level above and put in a Langer, Lewis, Lockyer performance making it happen against the momentum and under pressure.
Rob
Guest
It’s amazing how people see the game differently. QLD have always been viewed south of the border as an inferior team. Maybe they are just as good most of the time and it comes down to a little luck, magic and execution from some good footballers? QLD have plenty of skilled magicians in their team with Munster, Grant, Ponga and a few high quality executioners in Hunt, DCE, Holmes and Gagai. With solid grunt and tirelessly workers making up the mix. To be honest I thought my maroon eyes saw a convincing win by the more dominant team that only looked close through some poor passing and handling in the first 15min and some helpful officiating of field position and possession in the final 10min.
kk
Roar Pro
Absorbing read, Mike. The teams lists for O2 may tell us a lot about Freddy and Billy.
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
I think you underestimated our pack Mike. Almost all Origins are won up front. Cotter, Carigan , Tino, and my old mate Lindsay Collins were just better. If we hold our own upfront we just win. I bet NSW won the stats though.
The Barry
Roar Guru
100% - if I rate the Blues there’s lots of 4s, 5s and 6s (perhaps seasoned by my disappointment :stoked: ) I rate Queensland and it’s 7s, 8s and 9s, yet the margin was only 6 points and NSW had a couple of cracks at levelling up in the last ten NSW has way more room for improvement, so I haven’t given up the ghost at all. But the assignment of winning two from an away and a neutral game is much harder than two from a H, N, A Cleary played really well last year. He’ll play well for NSW again. He’s clearly NSW best 7 by some distance, but that doesn’t make him immune from criticism for his performance last night
John Neeson
Guest
Really missed Jurbo’s work in defence. Disrespect shown to Jake and Foxx by the Easts and Penrith selectors came back to bite them.
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
If you look ok at it from the perspective that Cleary had a poor game and is likely to play quite a bit better in the tensing two games, then NSW have reason to be not just optimistic, but confident. Because Cleary was definitely a bit crap. That was the 0-8 era of talent disparity in the halves. If he plays anything like that again in either of the next two games, they might as well run up the Qld flag on the harbour bridge right now.
Tom
Guest
The slowing the ruck thing annoys me...surely if you see the other team do it, the obvious solution is to do it right back?
gooch
Roar Rookie
Agreed on no plan B. But there kinda is. It’s called turbo, lartrell and panhueuzen. It’s a whole different world with those three out there. Just not for this series unfortunately - Next years plan B.
dogs
Guest
To paraphrase another roar user comment from a week or so ago: Was nice to see Hunt play without the weight of an entire team on his back Thought it was a great (I'm QLD) even game which could have gone either way. Very little in it, and think NSW actually created more chances. The cover/scramble defence from both sides was incredible. The way NSW covered both the Munster and Hunt breaks, neither looked like being a try. And then Holmes and DCE throughout the 2nd half, plus Kafusi and Ponga on that very last tackle. Both teams should be stoked with their performance, cannot wait for game 2.