Not sure how he won that award but anyway. The whole notion of swapping the two just annoys me. The margin of benefiting from that is really small. I'd rather just pick Hayne at the back and an actual winger.
Pearce, Josh Morris and Merritt will definitely be wearing "Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Lewis" shirts after we lose the series.
NSW should still be favourites IMO. If you can win with Minichiello, you can win with Dugan. The home ground advantage is huge. If Game III was in QLD, then yeah we would be heavy favourites but the home ground advantage is worth at least 6 points.
There's a small chance Hayne may not even be right. He's still not running fully and is obviously ruled out of tomorrow night's game against Manly. McManus has been named if he can't recover. He won't have played since rd13.
I seem to recall his debut was on the wing, back when he wore headgear? I remember one game, against the Broncos, when Taylor ran at him all night. Pretty sure he did that from the wing.
It is somewhat amusing that Brett Stewart is playing that game but he's the one not being considered due to lack of fitness. We could still win with Stewart at fullback IMO. Definitely not a true creative ballplayer like Hayne but he's still very well suited to the demands of the modern fullback role; he's a skillful and reliable link man.
Don't think Dugan played on the wing then. I think the incident you are thinking of was just a case of Dugan ending up near the sideline to make a cover tackle after a break. I can't ever recall Dugan playing on the wing and certainly not in the NRL.
I honestly think you could throw Stewart in on the wing and he'd do a better job than just about anyone NSW have. He's arguably the best finisher in the game. He's rock solid under the high ball. And although his positioning is an open question, his actual technique is vastly superior than Hayne, Merritt, McManus and etc.
The big question again though is points. The last 120 minutes of Origin footy, it's QLD 32, NSW 6. Pearce and Maloney are yet to produce a try. NSW have the pack to win the battle through the middle, but it's not much good if you can't capitalise it into points.
In terms of actual constructive play, NSW have created one try over 160 minutes. Jennings's was just disgraceful QLD defence and Morris's was from a kick (when the game was over). An inside ball from Lewis to Hayne in the first 5 minutes of Game I is the extent of their constructive point scoring. In terms of constructive tries it's: NSW 1 QLD 4
Yeah. I've agreed with you for a while that Stewart on the wing might be worth a punt. It's a bit of an awkward situation, this three games a year thing. If NSW played 24 games a year and had a proper pre-season then I have no doubt that players like Dugan and Stewart would become wingers; at this level that's basically where their skillset dictates they should be playing. At NRL level though they are best used at fullback and therefore haven't developed or at least haven't proven the specialist aspects of wing play.
There's a lot to be said for picking Adam Reynolds if your five eighth is creative. A pin point kicking game in Origin is very important.
Yeah, I scorned the idea and still think it's a mistake but Pearce just doesn't offer enough to play with Maloney. I'd pick Carney at halfback but I'd probably pick Reynolds over Pearce now. If all he offers is decent kicking, that's at least more than what Pearce has or does.
Fuck this Campese shit off. Another player on CricSim that's massively over-rated. It should be; Hayne Kelly Carney Farah There's so many points in that spine.
Campese's finished as an Origin option IMO. He should've played more Origins than he did and he's still a decent first grade half but he needs to have his running game to be an elite half and it's just not there since his last injury. I would've gone Carney and Maloney for Game III. I was in the "Pearce isn't an Origin standard half but he's the best we've got so there's no point replacing him" camp for ages but not only is he failing to capitalise on field position, but he's actually getting worse at Origin level. Maloney deserves a full series to prove his worth but if he had another poor game in Origin III this year I'd replace him next year as well, with Mullen.
