2022 State of Origin

Origin series involving Andrew “Joseph” Johns: NSW 5 wins, Qld 3 wins, 2 drawn series.

Other series: Qld 20 wins, NSW 11 wins.
 
I now have a conspiracy theory that Billy directed his players to let Jake Trbojevic make a bunch of metres in game 2 once the result was beyond doubt, to trick Freddy into picking him for game 3.
 
Timmy said:
Ponga taking hit ups every set, i wonder why he doesn't do that at Newcastle. Coaching maybe?
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Next time someone on this forum thinks of making the argument that Ponga is committed to his best at the Knights, please first reference this single game he played against a representative defence where he ran for 300m.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Origin series involving Andrew “Joseph” Johns: NSW 5 wins, Qld 3 wins, 2 drawn series.

Other series: Qld 20 wins, NSW 11 wins.
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Halfbacks who apply pressure with kicking games and finess. Ala joey to a halfback like Cleary and a drongo coach pulling his puppet strings. Says it all. Backs doing a lot of yardage work killed any chance of backline shifts later in the game, kicking game needed improvement. NSW struggled with creativity in attack and got monstered by good d from Qld all game. Errors and silly ones in crucial times cost us and chance of swinging momentum.
 
Les Misérables said:
Next time someone on this forum thinks of making the argument that Ponga is committed to his best at the Knights, please first reference this single game he played against a representative defence where he ran for 300m.
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Also played a very fullback like game.....chimed in when called upon. He reads the game so well in attack, we all know that.
 
Surely Burton should have been able to defend himself without being sin binned.

And what about Tino holding him so Gagai can punch him?
 
Les Misérables said:
Fitler cost the state that win with his contrived and arrogant personal preferences. Fool.
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Yep in the two Maroons wins they *****ed us with the physicality in their pack. Liam Martin is the avatar of this failure from Freddy, been a total non-factor in every game he’s played at this level and is a waste of a spot, yet he keeps getting picked because Freddy likes him personally. J Saf & Paulo the most impactful Blues forwards and neither is even the best forward at their own club, that’s how bad some of the others were and I simply don’t believe the pack gets daddied that badly with better selections. Going into an Origin game with one prop on the bench so Jake Turbo can play 65 minutes… my word.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Yep in the two Maroons wins they *****ed us with the physicality in their pack. Liam Martin is the avatar of this failure from Freddy, been a total non-factor in every game he’s played at this level and is a waste of a spot, yet he keeps getting picked because Freddy likes him personally. J Saf & Paulo the most impactful Blues forwards and neither is even the best forward at their own club, that’s how bad some of the others were and I simply don’t believe the pack gets daddied that badly with better selections. Going into an Origin game with one prop on the bench so Jake Turbo can play 65 minutes… my word.
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Imagine leaving the Daly M winner from 2020 out of the team after he had a MOTM performance in the first game, only to play S Crichton at centre after he failed in game 2, and then not correcting that error but doubling down on it for maximum damage.

Imagine having an entire state to choose from and selecting half a club side because 'synergy'. Then watching those particular players fail the team.

Imagine being Damien Cook, one of the Blues best each and every game for half a decade, then being demoted and replaced by journeyman hooker who plays a morbidly defensive role, while watching the Blues be outscored 2 to 1.

Imagine being one of the dozen eligible players who are objectively better than half the flops Freddy selected, and watching the Blues get pumped by a half gassed, half strength QLD side.

And Imagine the feeling of suspecting that Freddy is stupid enough to make the same errors next series.
 
I am not a Freddy fan and think he consistently makes awful selection blunders. However, I’ll stand up for him here and I’m happy to be called completely crazy but I would say that the loss of Murray was bigger than the combined impact of losing Collins and Cobbo.

Having watched Gagai all season and especially since his facial injury he has been a total liability at centre. Him getting moved to the wing means he was freed up to just run the footy and play his best game. Losing a middle forward is always tough but Collins is not QLD’s best and Sortve replaceable. The other factor here is Hunt and Grant can play together at the same time which also helped QLD. Cook and Api can’t really be on the field at the same time and Murray is so crucial to they want to play their footy.
 
I just wish Ponga put that much effort into the knights who pay him the big bucks.
I think game one and three shows that Cleary is a good half but not great, he plays great when his teams on top but no answer when they are doing it tough
 
Cleary is so weird. I don’t think there’s another half who can apply the pressure he does with his kicking game, but he’s a lot better at it when he’s putting the boot on the neck when you’re already two tries clear. Last night DCE’s kicking game was more Cleary-esque but he was doing it from 12-10 down most of the half (with timely assistance from Hunt and Grant). DCE’s best Origin game by miles and miles and I take back my “DCE is Queensland’s Mitch Pearce” burn, Mitch never played a game like that for the Blues.
 
Cleary and Luai are front runners and are great when they’re team gets in front which invariably happens at club level very often. Think the question marks on Cleary are that when the pressure gets applied he tends to look garbage. It might honestly be from a lack of experience playing behind a beaten pack the last 2 and a half seasons as it almost never happens.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Burton a new member of the Cam Murray & Joey Johns Club For Great Players Who Can’t Throw A Punch To Save Themselves.
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Except Button is the odd one out for not being a great player. His punching ability is the equivalent of his playing ability.
 
Another almighty choke by NSW. The Penrith halves didn’t step up again with Cleary again failing to take control in a big game.

They tried to pass their way out of trouble in the second half instead of bashing it up the middle where we had great success in the first half.

Queensland we’re by far the more composed side with Ponga feeding off the back of it and looked a threat every time he touched the ball in the 2nd half. Makes you wonder why he can’t return kicks for Newcastle.

Cherry-Evans stepped up big time with his clearing kicks and Hung chimed in perfectly in key moments. Dearden layed on the first try and then took the line on for the rest of the night and was near on perfect in defence. A very solid debut.

Fittler has some serious questions to answer with multiple dubious selections throughout the series.

NSW really should be on their own 4/5 series streak now with the stacked selection options available compared to Queensland since their legends slowly moved on. Just continue to bottle it every other year.

As a Cowboy supporter I couldn’t be happier for my lot that played. They all stood up and contributed heavily in that win. Nanai is just a freak and it’s going to be an almighty challenge keeping a hold of him from November onwards.
 
Looking forward to hearing the news that Freddy has been sacked.

Ponga and JSaf were very impressive, we have some talented players at our club who have experience playing at the highest level.
 
Nanai’s talent is unbelievable but I still reckon he got picked one year early & will be better for the run.

KP only actually returned like 3-4 kicks and a very low % of his running metres were kick return metres. He spread the ball to Oates on other occasions, and very few of his runs were barging ones early in sets like what you see from Tedesco. Most of his involvements were attacking ones particularly attacking specific weaknesses on the edges, and last night Queensland had the ball way more and laid a good platform for him. So I don’t think the “what” he did for the Maroons was that different than what he does for the Knights, it was the how and where of his touches.
 
6 kick returns for 90m

Probably takes him 3 games to get those sort of kick return metres. Every one of them in the second half split defenders and got Queensland on a roll at the start of each set.
 
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