The Football (all sorts) Thread

[i_amtrunks]

So Man U won a record 19th crown...

Now back to Footy!

Gordon gone for the season has ruined my Supercoach, I've had to replace him with the Hayne "overrated to the extreme" plane/train. Barba is too inconsistent to be a good fill in. My backs look very weak during origin with Uate and Yow Yeh out...

Speaking of Origin, very much a tale of quarters in the first half, the first 20 minutes were all QLD, the last 20 all NSW. NSW very lucky to only be down 6-0 after the 20 minutes.
Gallen needs to learn that it is not his job to tackle the opposition when he is holding onto the ball, other than that the NSW thug bros (Gallen, Bird, Ennis) have not done too bad, and the refs have fairly put the whistle away, ignoring some blatant infringements from both sides, to let the game flow.

As much as I hate to say it, NSW look better at halftime, and unless QLD come out strong in the first 15 minutes and score 2 or more tries, they could be in trouble with their weary legs. NSW also need to look to the right more, looking left is too obvious now.

[Sharky]

what a dour boring game, qld proving they can pull a try out of anything.. but generally a poorly refereed game with alot of poor calls, NSW centres were usless, looking slow andeasy targets.. i thought pearce had a good game in defence and NSW were very poor in following through with the ball runner, many ocaisions i saw bird gallen and scott looking for support and seeing noone there.

a well deserved QLD victory with so much more class and strike then anything NSW has to offer..

on a side note i do get tired of the banter betwenn phil gould and ray warren, so much banter that they failed to cal a single play in almost 2 sets of six.

when the tv rights get renewed i hope channel nine loose the coverage....

[i_amtrunks]

NSW had everything going their way tonight:
- Refs letting everything go, not penalising NSW for sitting all over the play the ball, intentionally not getting clear of the play the ball, offside markers in 5 out of 6 tackles.
- Thurstons Kicking radar being very off for him

And yet they still could not win. Lockyer to Slater is always dangerous, for QLD and for Australia.

I'm going to ignore all the penalties that would have been blown in an ordinary round match just in the play the ball/marker area, as the refs had an absolute shocker and need to be dropped for game two, they should have penalised Tonga early in the first half for taking out Dugan, and the NSW "forward" pass at the beginning of the second half was laughable.
They were also gutless at the conclusion of the match, preferring to let the match review panel deal with the biffo at the end rather than place anyone on report. We all know that no player will be punished for anything short of stabbing another in origin.

I thought Soward had a great game, considering he was playing two roles, 5/8th and fullback. Certainly not a negative for NSW in upcoming series. Jennings and Gasnier worked well together, and Uate is a keeper at this level too, he plays so similarly to Sailor its not funny. I think those three were the standouts, funny since they were all deemed '50-50' players. Dugan was ordinary, but still the better choice over the overrated Hayne. Morris had a shocker in defence, and the NSW pack did okay, but would have been totally ineffective had they not been allowed to lay all over the play the ball. Gallen is not a good captain, but I also think the grub should not be allowed to play footy for his thuggery, same goes for Bird and Ennis.

As for the QLD side, Slater, Lockyer, Thurston Smith and Cronk were all their excellent best (bar Thurstons goal kicking). Matt Scott was my player of the match, every time he had the ball he was doing damage. Lillyman, Thiaday, Tonga, Boyd and Hannant all played well too, Boyd crunching Gasnier was brilliant.

Bring on game 2, where I'll be sitting in the stands in my Maroon jersey once again!

[griffin]

on a side note i do get tired of the banter betwenn phil gould and ray warren, so much banter that they failed to cal a single play in almost 2 sets of six.

when the tv rights get renewed i hope channel nine loose the coverage....

I was more surprised about channel nine signing up 2 major sponsors of the telecast that were of a completely different/wrong demographic. The half-time 'entertainment' was a long trailer for Xmen and several commercials for it later, as well as a commentator stating that the game tonight was brought to us by Call of Duty WM3 with several ads for that as well.
It'd be like having comic book convention sponsored by beer, harleys and industrial workboots...

[Trailer Park Ninja]

If NSW don't win next game, the whole State Of Origin will become even more seemingly irrelevant.

[Sharky]

NSW had everything going their way tonight:
- Refs letting everything go, not penalising NSW for sitting all over the play the ball, intentionally not getting clear of the play the ball, offside markers in 5 out of 6 tackles.
!

thats hardley a fair estimate dugan had his legs chopeed from underneath him whilst in the air - no penalty, thurstan stripped the ball from uate in a two man tackle no penalty, mitchell pearces "forward pass" from the kick off.... not to mention the amount of times hannet was actually offside, so QLD had a fair rub of the green also, with a penalty count of 2 - 1 in qlds favor i think there was alot on both sides that the referee failed to pick up.

and really what can you do to combat a play that goes through the hands of Lokyear, Thurston and Slater... three of the games greatest...

[Bartrim]

It'd be like having comic book convention sponsored by beer, harleys and industrial workboots...

Finally a convention for the blue collar nerd like myself

On football side I have to agree with Sharky, Trunks. Where as the refs made alot of bad calls and I understand that they wanted to have a free flowing game with few penalties I still think QLD had the calls go their way. Wasn't surprised that QLD won I was surprised that it took them 75 minutes to win the game. My thoughts on the game...
Soward- Surprised me with his defence (especially his scramble) but he is a 5/8 he is supposed to generate attack-something I didn't see him do.
Dugan- Apart from one knock played well for his origin debut-good enough to keep Hayne out (I hope)
Jennings- The ONLY NSW player who looked dangerous. Played great. Would like to see Uate switched to the left hand side as I think they would be dangerous together.
Bird- Only set up that try because he didn't do anything else all game and was well rested.
Gasnier- Is too old now. He's lost that half a second which is vital in origin
Morris- I think the look on Dugans face tells the story
Scott- Surprised he wasn't penalised everytime he tackled someone. Played very dirty
Ennis- I had to laugh when he fumbled that ball. Also once NSW hit the lead he gave QLD the ball back on their own 40. Might as well of handed them the game. Hopefully he and Young will be replace by Farah and Hinchcliffe for the next game, but that wont happen under supercoach Stuart

No need to breakdown QLD. They proved once again that not only are they a team of champions but they are also a champion team. Although at one stage Jacob Lillyman was NSW best player

[i_amtrunks]

On football side I have to agree with Sharky, Trunks. Where as the refs made alot of bad calls and I understand that they wanted to have a free flowing game with few penalties I still think QLD had the calls go their way.

Sorry, should have made myself clearer, NSW did get a bad rub with the refs, everything Sharky mentioned was 100% correct and QLD should have been penalised for them all, and the forward pass call was incredibly stupid.
I merely meant that I think in an ordinary round game the NSW side would have been penalised 3-4 times each set for laying over the play the ball area, they did it very well though, making it look clumsy rather than malicious.

I guess I was trying to say the standard of reffing was atrocious, and the whole official team for Origin I should not be brought back for origin II.

Ennis- I had to laugh when he fumbled that ball. Also once NSW hit the lead he gave QLD the ball back on their own 40. Might as well of handed them the game. Hopefully he and Young will be replace by Farah and Hinchcliffe for the next game, but that wont happen under supercoach Stuart

He made 1 metre all game, and for a rare change didnt give away any penalties (see above for reason!). How Sticky can justify keeping him is beyond me, but he has been reported as anti Farah for some reason... QLD have shown, a great dummy half runner who can kick well is an important member for a successful Origin team to have... Ennis can't kick, as he showed on Wednesday...

[Bartrim]

Didn't Stuart say something about not picking players out of position? So why do NSW have 7 backrowers and 4 fullbacks in their side?

After being depressed reading the NSW side this article cheered me up a bit.

http://thesinbinpodcast.wordpress.co...lue-and-white/

Such professionalism

[i_amtrunks]

Didn't Stuart say something about not picking players out of position? So why do NSW have 7 backrowers and 4 fullbacks in their side?

I think if he could go back in time and not say that, Tricky would. It was a really stupid thing to say, considering that injuries always play a part in origin.

Personally I think Hopate is a good choice for right now, Idris has not been at his best for weeks, is he injured? But Hopoate will not be around next year due to his Mormon sabbatical (is that the right term?) so that flies in the face of Ricky also saying he wanted a "team to build on for the next 5 years" but again, injuries have taken their toll.

It seems that being a centre is now the most dangerous position to play for season 2011...

If Dugan is out, does hayne go to fullback, or do you put Count in there as Hayne has done well as a winger, where he can hide in defence and out the spotlight that he often falters in?

Lewis and Gidley would have been in the NSW for game 1, so it's natural they were slotted in there for game 2, Watmough is a grub, but NSW like their grubs (not saying QLD dont have a few) and he has been playing very well for Manly.

And in more important thinking, who does Taylor replace in the QLD side? Lillyman or Norman?