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!