2014 State of Origin

Far too much? You have fuck all creativity with Pearce in there. Even with Hayne, who has struggled to create anything from fullback for NSW, you'll still struggle for points IMO.

Picking Hayne at fullback is a must, why? Precisely because of the halves.

 

If both Carney and Mullen were fit, picking Hayne at fullback would not be a must. In fact I think you'd be better off picking Stewart and playing Hayne at centre. You can pick have Graham Langlands at fullback and it still won't mean shit if your halves are Pearce/Maloney or Pearce/Reynolds.

Hayne is only a must because of your shitty halfback.

 

If you'd said there's been too much fuss about the half combination when 50% of it is, and has been for quite some time, decided, then fair enough. I'd acquiesce. But apart from that, no way. The halves pairing is far more important than who plays fullback. NSW have lost a lot more games because of their halves than their fullback. Maloney and especially Pearce were just as much if not more responsible for the loss in Game 3 last year than Dugan was.

 

Nobody's saying they'd be Sterling/Kenny but by the same token no serious person can suggest there isn't a hell of a lot more creativity than a Pearce/Maloney, Pearce/Reynolds combination.

Fair enough. I disagree and if we're talking overstatements we ought to bear in mind that Hayne has created nothing in his three games there.

How did it disprove my contention? You think Hayne was the difference between winning and losing? A good performance from a bad one?

If a frog had wings. I'm not going to get into speculations about what would've happened had he played. Personally, I think Gallen was a bigger loss. I'm certainly not going to get in the position of defending Josh Dugan. I could just as easily say NSW might've won had Stewart played.

And as I said before, half the reason you need Hayne at the back in the first place is because you're going to have muppet halves who can't create shit. So whatever importance you assign to the fullback selection, a significant portion of it is attributable to the halves.

Look I think Hayne needs to be there too but the way some of you carry on about it you'd think he'd already actually produced the sort of performances of which his demonstrated ability at club level seems to portend. And he just hasn't. He's played 3 games and he hasn't been the difference in any of them. He hasn't created anything in them.