Men State of Origin 2024

Mate if spending $200,000 developing the Battler Mind-Read-O-Matic is “creepy” then… hmm yeah it probably is.

But yeah I gotcha. Makes sense now in the context of what you posted. I think I just misread it, sorry mate.

I’m curious to go back now and see if I can find one example of Nanai or Capewell running an unders line in the entire series. Always so easy for the Blues to slide. The two of them just standing there whenever the ball not being passed to them.
 
Well…that was one for the ages!

Likes:

* seeing the faces of all the Queensland commentators at the end of the game who had to suck it up and couldn’t look more salty if they tried😿😿😿

* Gal and Joey were both like a dog with two d!cks being able to stick it up those boys, for all the times they’ve had to suck it up when Qld have claimed the series🤣🤣😊

* Madge - absolutely made for origin coaching!!! He put the steel, the heart and the pride back into what pulling on a Blues jersey means…and he got the players to buy into that too

* The Blues players…they weren’t the best man for man team we have put out on the field but every one of them played to the game plan and delivered to best of their ability for themselves, for each other, for the jersey and for the State

Dislikes :

* Klein - if he is the best we can throw up to adjudicate on the pinnacle of our sport…then we have a lot of problems at the quality of officials we have to choose from - he has way too much ego to realise that his job is actually not to be noticed in a game of this magnitude. You are also expected to be consistent and even handed in how he rules around the ruck are applied in particular - play the ball speed should be pretty close over the whole game yet the Blues play the ball speed (4.09 secs) was near 1/2 a second slower on average over the whole game compared to the Maroons (3.60 secs). So over 420 tackles, they got an extra 3 1/2 minutes of holding the blues down?!

* the fact we’ve got to wait a whole 12 months to give it to the cane toads again😉👍🏻
 
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What a game. Anxiety from halftime to Bradman scoring was immense, just couldn't shake the feeling that QLD were somehow going to catch us slipping as has happened so many times before.

Bradman is yet to turn 23 which absolutely rattles me. Inches away from breaking the game open multiple times he was supremely close to an alltime centre performance if things had gone slightly differently. His last 18 months of footy has been something to behold, should be in the Kangaroos squad at the end of the season.

Feel for poor Gags who was out of his depth against Bradman but nonetheless I'm delighted he got another go in the Origin arena and an extra 60k for his troubles over Game II and III.

Madge's results have spoken for themselves but the call to put Barnett in is IMO his biggest and eventually the most crucial in the series. I am a massive Haumole fan and have wanted him to be picked for a couple of seasons now but it's obvious that he didn't quite fit the makeup of our currrent side. After such a resounding win it would've been so easy for Madge to pick and stick 1-17 (Latrell aside) but the form of Barny could not be ignored and boy did he deliver. Looked like a bloke playing his 10th Origin rather than his first, thrust into the action much earlier than expected and killed it, continued to dominate across both left and right backrow as well as in the middle during his time on the field.

Crucial selection that required balls to make - bravo Madge. Something that his opposition coach could probably learn from, or you know hopefully he continues to pick terrible hills to die on and doubles down in the face of overwhelming evidence for the rest of his coaching career.
 
Battler said:
He clearly said that he was checking for a penalty try. Walsh fell over what, 30 metres out?
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Nah, he would have known that was no chance at all, but wanted to check the late contact for a penalty. Sends it up their under this false BS about possible penalty try.

Otherwise, after the game he faces massive backlash about missing that late hit on Walsh.
 
MullosLefttoRight said:
What a game. Anxiety from halftime to Bradman scoring was immense, just couldn't shake the feeling that QLD were somehow going to catch us slipping as has happened so many times before.

Bradman is yet to turn 23 which absolutely rattles me. Inches away from breaking the game open multiple times he was supremely close to an alltime centre performance if things had gone slightly differently. His last 18 months of footy has been something to behold, should be in the Kangaroos squad at the end of the season.

Feel for poor Gags who was out of his depth against Bradman but nonetheless I'm delighted he got another go in the Origin arena and an extra 60k for his troubles over Game II and III.

Madge's results have spoken for themselves but the call to put Barnett in is IMO his biggest and eventually the most crucial in the series. I am a massive Haumole fan and have wanted him to be picked for a couple of seasons now but it's obvious that he didn't quite fit the makeup of our currrent side. After such a resounding win it would've been so easy for Madge to pick and stick 1-17 (Latrell aside) but the form of Barny could not be ignored and boy did he deliver. Looked like a bloke playing his 10th Origin rather than his first, thrust into the action much earlier than expected and killed it, continued to dominate across both left and right backrow as well as in the middle during his time on the field.

Crucial selection that required balls to make - bravo Madge. Something that his opposition coach could probably learn from, or you know hopefully he continues to pick terrible hills to die on and doubles down in the face of overwhelming evidence for the rest of his coaching career.
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Big decisions that Fittler wouldnt have made, Under Fittler i don't see the following being picked, Edwards, Lomax, Watson, Leniu, Barnett.
 
I have to say I’m not his biggest fan, but I thought Klein handled the game very well. He was about as quiet as a ref can be these days. Queensland’s defence was immense for the first 60 minutes, so I’d expect NSW to have slower play the balls.
 
jamesgould said:
I have to say I’m not his biggest fan, but I thought Klein handled the game very well. He was about as quiet as a ref can be these days. Queensland’s defence was immense for the first 60 minutes, so I’d expect NSW to have slower play the balls.
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Interesting thoughts from a neutral. In my bias NSW glasses I felt QLD were just given way too many liberties in the ruck to slow the game down. Martin at one stage made a great run, found his front goes to stand up and the marker frog jumped over him. I know QLD were just giving there all to win but the ruck being that slow I felt ruined the spectacle a bit.
 
waynesworld said:
Interesting thoughts from a neutral. In my bias NSW glasses I felt QLD were just given way too many liberties in the ruck to slow the game down. Martin at one stage made a great run, found his front goes to stand up and the marker frog jumped over him. I know QLD were just giving there all to win but the ruck being that slow I felt ruined the spectacle a bit.
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Was that near the end?
 
Yeah I was pretty unimpressed by Ash. I feel like every Blues play the ball was a full second slower even though we were dominating contact all night. Until some late catch up penalties when the game was over the Maroons were leading the penalty count (and most of the penalties awarded to the Blues were just clear cut dangerous contact). Letting the game flow is one thing but every ruck penalty against the Blues was for something you just saw go unpenalised five times in the previous set.
 
Reece Walsh is the most overrated player in the NRL. If Queensland wants to win Origin next year I think they should pick KP there instead and also Fifita has to be back in. Billy needs to swallow his pride there. Also they badly missed the three injured middles this year already mentioned in the previous game. Cotter struggled again I thought.

I doubt Jurbo will captain the Blues with Yeo taking over and I think Cleary will probably get back in for Moses. Barney was awesome I thought, he's made for origin and wished he was still at the Knights. Good to see Bradman get over for a 🥧. Hopefully he backs for us on Saturday.
 
Slater was complaining about Walsh being targeted by the Blues but none of the Blues kicked an opponent’s head while they were on the ground.
 
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Reece Walsh sooked like he’d suffered a career ending injury every five minutes but was clearly running unimpeded all night.

We now know Dylan Edwards suffered a PCL injury which is gonna keep him out for weeks. He played through it without complaint.

Never thought I’d see the day where the Blues were just too tough for the Maroons and this right here sums up the series.

Dylbags has won me over. I was wrong. He’s absolutely an Origin player. Everything good in his game translated perfectly.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Reece Walsh sooked like he’d suffered a career ending injury every five minutes but was clearly running unimpeded all night.

We now know Dylan Edwards suffered a PCL injury which is gonna keep him out for weeks. He played through it without complaint.

Never thought I’d see the day where the Blues were just too tough for the Maroons and this right here sums up the series.

Dylbags has won me over. I was wrong. He’s absolutely an Origin player. Everything good in his game translated perfectly.
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I knew Edwards was more than good enough to play Origin/rep footy after his grand final performance against Parra.

After games 2 and 3, no one is taking the Blues 1 jersey off him.
 
waynesworld said:
I am probably wrong though as I’m as biased as one could possibly be.
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You're not wrong, NSW average PTB speed was 4.1 seconds (QLD 3.6 seconds), and as Harv says above that should have been the other way round given who was winning the collisions all night. There won't be an NRL side shafted with that slow a ruck all year, generally in the 3.2-3.6 second range.

Klein did a fantastic job if having a close game was important to you, QLD only stayed in the contest as long as they did because Klein let them.
 
All that said it's probably good for Origin in general that the game was close, everyone is talking up how it was a brutal old school Origin clash today. Wouldn't be the case if NSW got out to an early lead and won big in a way their physical dominance probably deserved.
 
waynesworld said:
No first half, anyway that was just my view. I am probably wrong though as I’m as biased as one could possibly be.
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Not at all, most seem to agree with you so I'm sure I'm off the mark.

I'd just say fast play the balls isn't really what Origin is about, in my view? The classic Origins are all trench warfare type games, decided by a spark of brilliance by the best players, and that's what we got last night.
 
Celticman98 said:
Reece Walsh is the most overrated player in the NRL. If Queensland wants to win Origin next year I think they should pick KP there instead and also Fifita has to be back in. Billy needs to swallow his pride there. Also they badly missed the three injured middles this year already mentioned in the previous game. Cotter struggled again I thought.

I doubt Jurbo will captain the Blues with Yeo taking over and I think Cleary will probably get back in for Moses. Barney was awesome I thought, he's made for origin and wished he was still at the Knights. Good to see Bradman get over for a 🥧. Hopefully he backs for us on Saturday.
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Agree with all of this. Walsh wasn't unfairly targeted last night, he was just missing. You would be mad not to have a fit KP there.

Qld definitely missed Tino, Flegler and Gilbert. Cotter got steamrolled. Qld's edges got dominated as well.

No way NSW can carry Jurbo next year, that was probably Madge's biggest error of judgement in my view and I suspect he knew it after game 1 as well. Barnett showed he can do whatever Jurbo would be needed to do. You could start him at prop, make Yeo captain even if it is from the bench. Haumole can then slot back onto the interchange.

Of course there will be injuries, suspensions and form drops before game 1 team is picked next year, but if everyone is fit and firing you wouldn't change too much.
 
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