Such a courageous performance. Blues just can't finish. I feel for Freddy, time to move on.
Also what's with ado carrs late punch. Really?
There were no game breakers in nsw like Valentine Holmes or Harry Grant. They lost the star power of Troboevic after three minutes, he could have made a diffference at critical times that could easily have made it much tighter. I think I heard some criticism about putting a specialist hooker at centre swapping players around after losing Troboevic. DCE played well. His long run and tackle on a runaway nsw centre was a great rugby league moment. Troboevic body is under engineered for his size I think. It puts more strain on critical parts of it than does the shape of your average player. It is like a suspension bridge that has to carry just a bit too much stress for its engineering. It is prone to failure and collapse.
Agree! Turbo isn’t structurally sound for a full season. I don’t think I will watch game 3
Can't believe Freddy stuck with Teddy. Too loyal. Should put Nicho at fullback. Big body that can pass and did so very well back in his Storm days. Glad he recalled Cody walker. Don't know why king gutho is warming the bench when arguably he should start
Don't really follow the sport, but when you've already lost the series why play the same blokes, especially older guys who've underperformed? Pick a fresh young side, give some guys a crack to see how they handle it, and if you lose at least you lost trying something different.
I agree, Freddy really has two choices to deal with game III:
1. Stick solid with the game 2 squad and just add the necessary replacement for the injury. They all deserved a redemption and restore some pride for NSW.
2. Like you said, make some wholesale changes and blood as many new young players as possible - give the chances to those who are in some form. What have they got to lose? Baby Blues could deliver a miracle, no ?
Either way, the Queenslanders will probably put 30 on the Blues anyway, does NSW have a team who can score 6 tries against this current red hot Maroons team ?
Go Queensland
Cheers
Dylan Brown's fine being doubled by the Eels!?! That's the most expensive boob job ever at $40k per boob... surely a punt would have been far less expensive and he doesn't get stood down.
As part of his re-education he needs to be shown this reference site for his 'urges'.
Matty Johns vindicated for calling Cody Walker as no6 prior to game 2. So good to see him unlock that left side.
I was amazed by Koloamatungi's batt pass ... he's one helluva back rower!
Hope Ivan Cleary gets to be part of next year's brains trust again. No better alternatives to Freddy atm...not till bellyache retires from Storm.
I think while Cody did a fantastic job for the Blues. Queensland was really missing that speed and final touches by Reece Walsh. The Maroons had enough opportunities to level or even win the game last night, but some of the passes and kicks especially were just a couple of metres off and the opportunities were gone.
From memory there were three times in the second half:
DCE’s kick to Xavier was too deep.
Munster’s kick for Val Holmes was beaten by the dead ball line , and
When AJ broke free to the Blues 20 meters he passed the ball to the right for DCE was intercepted. Reece would have back himself and scored under the post.
OTOH, Best would have got a triple if his teammates wasn’t a inch or two off side or if Crichton’s finger didn’t touch the high ball, the score could easily be 36-10.
The Blues deserved the win last night to restore some pride and Queenslanders were the rightful series winner.
Let’s do this all again in 2024 !
I got a Power Price offer from Sportsbet for a NSW win by 13+ points for $8.17 so I was pretty confident QLD was over it and NSW had some motivation and something to prove so I put $200 on it.
And as we know NSW won by 14 points so a nice $1,634 pay out for me.
That's 5 x 1 hour punts for me and a few drinks and a nice dinner. So I am a happy man.
But remember "You lose more than you win" and "gamble responsibly" and all that sensible shit :)
Yes I agree. They were missing Reece Walsh. I like watching the Broncos because of the rebuild story and how much difference Adam Reynolds has made to that team.
Btw curious to know how you're supporting Maroons? Fan of the players in the cam smith/slater era or from there?
Thx for kudos in other thread :)
Well, there were two particular reasons why I considered myself a “Queenslander” and why I would always support the Maroons:
1. I arrived in Australia as a young skilled migrant in the last century and landed in Eagle Farm as my first job in this country was in Elizabeth St Brisbane. That would make me a Queensland origin , no ?
2. Coming from Hong Kong, I knew nothing about the local sports such as Cricket (boring was my first impression, how could you play a game over 5 days and most of the scores were like 5 dots and 1 run………lol), football to me was soccer and soccer only, rugby league, Union or AFL , never even heard of them.
Then one day in the 90’s. Workmates had organised an event to watch a State of Origin game in Moore Park. Queensland won that match of course and we got to join the after match party at the Bondi Hotel where the Maroons were staying. I was very lucky to meet big Mal the Captain and of course, the rest was history.
You mentioned about Cam Smith/Slater - of course that was correct but they came to the scene much later .
My Rugby League journey went like this:
Supporting Queensland, follow big Mal, then automatically followed the Canberra Raiders.
Big Mal retired and Alfie Langer took over as Maroons Captain so I switched to follow the Broncos, then Lockyer and when Lockyer retired and Smith took over as Captain I switch to the Storms.
Now that all the legends from the golden era have all retired and becoming the coaching team. I just continue to follow the Queenslanders in Storms, Broncos, Cowboys, etc.
Go Queensland!
You couldn't have expected QLD to have the full State of Origin fire in their belly. They'd already won the series, and just trying to rub NSW faces in it wasn't enough motivation for them to want to bash themselves on the field. NSW had a whitewash to avoid as motivation. So we didn't get a classic all in S.O.O game. Good tries scored though by both sides.
Should David Warner be dropped. If not why are Renshaw and the other bloke Harris(?) on tour at all?
Congratulations to the Aussie girls retaining the Ashes by winning with 3 runs 👏👏👏👍👍👍💪💪💪
Nat Scivers was 111 not out and could have won it or tie it needing 5 runs to win in the last ball.
Which made the Australian no 8 Georgia Wareham’s 37 not out from 14 balls the winning hits of the inning, especially in the final over hitting 6, 6, 4, 6, 4, dot!! A strike rate 264%!!
Well done Georgia, we’ll done Australia, after losing 3 matches in a row. Great come back.
Now off to the boys in Manchester on Wednesday.
Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi 👏👍👌
Warner should be dropped. Broad has him beaten.
He can still do his farewell in Australia in the summer.
He deserves that.
Zampa is the second best Aussie spinner and should have been in the squad to replace injured Lyons.
Aussie selectors are spiteful vindictive old bastards and are punishing him for criticising them.
ANyone watch the Mens wimbledonfinmal last night? Happy for Carlos Alcaraz to get his first slam on the grass