The problem I have with Lewis is not that he took Slater - As you said, he had to. My problem was that he was slow getting off the line.
Looking at that it definitely wasn't Lewis's fault, in real time with the camera angle it seemed like he took some that wasn't his man, didn't show Creagh in no mans land. You need your inside man to lead you up, if Lewis came up any faster there would've been a yawning gap between he and Creagh for Slater to stroll through. Total break down whichever way you look at it.
Lewis was slow off the line. It's not up to Creagh to ensure Lewis moves up. Creagh stopped moving up after Slater ran outside his line so although Lewis is actually in front of him, he wasn't when it mattered. I'm not blaming Lewis, I'm merely saying he's not totally guilt-free. The problem started with Creagh.
Yes but considering Thaiday is actually Lewis's man who did you want Lewis to get up on? If Creagh had led them up as he's supposed he'd be pressuring Slater and Lewis could slide to Thaiday. In that still his (Lewis) body language suggests that he began moving towards Thaiday but had to change late due to Creagh not being there, if he'd got up any faster on Thaiday then Slater would've strolled over.
It doesn't matter who was in front of him - He didn't move up quickly enough. He was slow off the line. Pearce and Creagh were both up quicker. Saying Slater would've strolled through if he had been another step forward is nonsense.
On that still shot if Lewis was another step forward up on his man (Thaiday) Slater would've shot past Creagh to score.
You really have to wonder about the NSW game plan for the opening sets. Stuart did exactly what Bellamy did - Instructed his side to kick from awful field position in the first set, early in the count, which allowed QLD to get back over half-way before they'd even used two tackles. As Paul Kent wrote, rather tongue-in-cheek but nonetheless, NSW were out of the game after 3 tackles. From then on it was an avalanche of QLD field position which in turn led to an avalanche of QLD possession; field position leads to drop-outs and thus repeat sets of possession. Even 20 minutes in after 85% of the game had been played in NSW's end, Pearce kicked early in the count from 28m out. Even if he hadn't put it out on the full, Boyd would've taken it, been back at half-way and QLD would've been in NSW's territory with a full set. This is what I have never understood. Both Bellamy and Stuart have gotten Johns in the camps to work on Pearce's kicking game since 2008 when he made his debut, and he still comes out with these tactically illogical plays. Not only are you giving up more metres by kicking earlier you're also giving the opposition, who already had 70% of the ball, more possession. You have to risk making an error, which is minimal, by having a full set of go-forward to break the cycle that made QLD's end of the field virtually unexplored territory. 35 minutes in and NSW had not been tackled in QLD's half even once. That is insane. I have never seen anything like that in Origin or even FG RL. They had only been over the half-way line twice with the ball in hand and dropped it both times. It's hard to really visualise and comprehend the dominance of possession and field position just by statistics so I documented it, visually, both for myself and others to see. Blue dots are obviously tackles on NSW players in possession. Maroon dots, where QLD players were tackled. Dots in the in-goal are either tries or tackled in goal, obviously. Errors do not count, so for example NSW first error by Minichiello is not a dot as he wasn't tackled. This is just the first 35 minutes before NSW finally got into the match. The first things that strike me are obviously the number of Maroon dots and how many dots there are in NSW's half, but also how much of QLD's attack was directed down the left.
Yeah, well spotted. Great piece of dummy-half play from Smith who is probably twice as good or valuable as the next dummy-half in the game.
It was definitely evident during the game that we were favouring the left but I didn't realise it was to that extent.
Reckon Ricky Stuart was more interested in trying to re-invent the game than just going with a simple safe gameplan and winning. Still, I'm glad he's the NSW coach - like Bennett said in an article recently, it heated up the "hate" once again, instead of just QLD feeling sorry for NSW like in the last few years.
I don't think he was trying to re-invent the game any more than Bellamy was. Bellamy went in with only 1 recognised prop and a backrower up front. NSW have long had an affinity with backrowers. They really need to mark down 4 positions for props, 1 of which can play backrow (Gallen). And pick three backrowers who can tackle. It's not that hard ffs.
Agree a lot. Kicking early against a good bsck 3 is so dumb. The one ploy That I think is under used is shaping up for a 40-20 shot and then running 5-10 metres and kicking it from near halfway.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...ave-bitter-taste/story-e6freye0-1226091493151 What an absolute fuck arse. Talk about QLD needing to learn sportsmanship - Not 5 minutes after Games 1 and 3 were finished the NSW captain, who is at the centre of the linked article, was blaming the referees. Gallen deserves respect and sportsmanship? The bloke pole-axed Inglis in the head in Game 2, and took out Slater in Game 3, off the ball. The NSW crowd used to, and probably still would, boo the Australian captain (when playing for Australia) in Sydney because of their antipathy for him (Wally Lewis). I couldn't give a rats arse if the NSW crowd had booed Lockyer in Game 2. They used to boo Tallis. They used to boo Langer. We booed Johns. I mean ffs. Enjoy the QLD flag flying defiantly on the Harbour Bridge ya dickhead.
lol, Fuck you Queenslanders over emphasise things. Gallen hardly blamed the ref. He said there were a few dodgey calls but the better team still won. He also then went on to say that 10 points didn't show how much better Queensland were. OMG WAT A BAD SPORT AY?
Whenever Gallen comes up for discussion, talking to you is like talking to Gemmell about Hodges. Objectivity goes out the window. When talking about why they lost, he said too much defence early on, we gave them a start and... Quote:...a few calls from referees and they were always gonna go against us. He is saying, implicitly, that the referees went out there with a premeditated bias towards QLD. Stuart said the same in the build-up to the match - Questioning the integrity of referees is terrible sportsmanship (unless you have blatant and unequivocal evidence which they certainly did not), and is also a violation that, in the NRL, would see them fined. Quote:...a few calls that went against us I thought were terrible calls... Quote:...they were all over us and I thought the referee let them get away with a bit... Yeah, not blaming referees at all. Did he say anything about them after the win in Game 2? And all of this completely ignores the fact that not only is he speaking shit - NSW weren't any worse off than QLD in this series, but he himself got away with murder both in the ruck, and off the ball as I've mentioned (high shot on Inglis, tackle on Slater) He's the last person who should be talking about referees.
The only thing worse than his ridiculous and absurd comments are your apologetics for them. If Lockyer or a QLD captain had said this, you would not have taken this stance. That the words came out of Gallen's mouth is the reason and any fair-minded person can see that.
