2017 State of Origin

There were some really poor moments for Maloney as well though. After getting back to 16-10 in Game 2, last tackle on Qld's 30, Maloney throws an inside pass to Bird who is set upon straight away and tackled. Concedes field position through a terrible option, Qld go straight back up the other end and score. Stuff like this doesn't get remembered or highlighted but it's so crucial. Such a Mitchell Pearce play. Just no sense of the context of the situation.

He had a few bad moments like this throughout the series.

Five to go, down by 10, inside QLD's 20, Maloney goes to the line and passes into the hip of the decoy. Just kills the attack.

 

U20's.

NSW also flogged us 26-0 in the 18's this year.

And yet...



Something's going very wrong in the development process. How are NSW dominating every grade but in the one that actually matters?

 

lol such lemonz...

 

Mm. That seems fairly logical. On the other hand there's never not been a period where NSW have dominated the lower grades. Even Thurston and Smith's time.

Incidentally any of the 2012-13 crop who were gonna make it as first graders probably already have. Lee, Sims, Cordner, Klemmer, Boyd, Stockwell, Lichaa, Evans, Napa, Oates, Mbye, Grevsmuhl, Maranta, Walker, Brooks, Trbojevic, Milford etc. But yeah it's too early for that crop to have infiltrated Origin yet.

 

Aside from his try in 2014, I struggle to think of anything Hodkinson has done in the last two years that merit him even being in the conversation. Yeah he's a solid enough FG halfback. Is he likely to be the one who comes up trumps when they roll the dice again? Nah.

 

I'm really not as understanding or compassionate towards Maloney and Reynolds as some are though. They were gifted more opportunities through field position in this series than any other in the last 10 years. The Blues pack, to varying degrees, outplayed QLD's in all 3 matches. And they still struggled just as much for points. Maloney may have offered more than Carney, Pearce, Hodkinson and the rest but it roughly correlates with the superior field position imo.

 

Nah, it's a perfectly defensible selection and I would argue a more logical one. You could've made a reasonable counter highlighting what you think are the justifications for your opinion, as EWS did (though his position is slightly different to your absolutist one). Instead by refusing to argue the position you resort to assertions of the self-evident and once again come off as the biased Broncos fan that you self-evidently ​are. You are the Brisbane equivalent of Nadyone.

 

Mm. He's a very good ball runner coming out of trouble. He was stellar for us in Game 3 from our own end.

Boyd's come out and said he would happily vacate fullback for Slater and clearly Kevvie wants Billy in camp. We just have to wait and see how he returns. But if he does return and gets back in the QLD side, there's no way Walters will drop Gagai to play Boyd or Oates out of position. And I'm glad for that.

 

Why would playing fullback and then going back to left wing suggest he would go fine on the right? I mean I agree that he'd probably handle it but I don't see what one has to do with the other. Passing is virtually irrelevant. It's positional play in defence.

That unknown is definitely grounds for not risking it especially when Gagai played as well as he did on the right. But we obviously disagree on the gap between him and Oates.