NRL Power Rankings: Round 8 - Rabbits hit rock bottom, Warriors show signs of complacency, Dragons' bubble bursts
The season is heading into its middle third and there is a clear separation between seven teams who all look playoff bound and the…
I’ll start this article by congratulating Queensland and their supporters on a deserving victory.
A memorable win for three future immortals that without doubt would be the highlight of their Origin careers. Origin being Origin though, they won’t get the time to celebrate which they have thoroughly earned.
The opposite must be said for NSW. Changes must now be made. No ifs no buts, that was the wake-up call of all wake-up calls. Coach Laurie Daley needs to make tough choices or resign.
I feel as if last year’s team was assembled purely to try and halt Queensland’s dominant run. This was not a team which would carry us to victory in the following years. And that objective of ending Queensland’s consecutive run of wins was reached, with a bit of luck coming in the way of Cooper Cronk being injured.
The rebuilding should have started this series. Sure we more than likely would have lost this series and perhaps another one or two but our focus should be the long-term.
Now we have hit rock bottom. I can’t think of any positives anybody from NSW could get out last night’s game other than the only way to go is up from here. If we had begun the changing of the guard this year we NSW fans would at least be comforted by the fact that next year will be better.
Unfortunately that is not the case. It is not all doom and gloom however. New Zealand made necessary changes to their squad after the huge loss to the Kangaroos in the RLWC and that has turned out wonders for them. I hope and pray the relevant people from NSWRL take a leaf out of their book.
As they say night is darkest right before the dawn. That and hopefully Cam Smith, Billy Slater, Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk hang up their Origin boots sometime soon.
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