tommy
International Rep
- Jun 5, 2015
- 12,817
- 13,652
I'm surprised I didn't make a freudian slip here.
Thinking back on past Origin series, there's definitely been a few that weren't as engaging as others.
In 2010 the Blues were a dogs breakfast and there was that infamous lead-up to Game II where Tahu walked out on the team after Joey's bone-headed pep talk to Beau Scott. It truly felt like we were watching NSW at their lowest ebb as Queensland completed their first clean sweep since 1995.
2013 started off as a tantalising series coming off of the dramatics of 2012 and a few sneaky behind the scenes ploys from NSW. Then the series all fell apart when Gallen clocked Nate Myles and was allowed to stay on the field. If Gallen had have been sin binned, the biff would have lasted longer and it would have given the NRL time to come up with a better rule.
Instead they bowed to public pressure, put together a mandatory penalty which are always flawed and the series turned into a farce in Game II. Tate got binned for getting rabbit punched and I think Bird got binned for being Greg Bird. The Blues kept losing players through out the series, the result became more predictible and the streaker ruining the last 5 minutes of the series summed it up.
I can barely remember anything about 2016, except the Blues didn't put up much of a fight and Game III was an old fashioned stitch up. I used to get really fired up about one-sided refereeing, but in that case, I just felt embarrassed.
That was Gallen's farewell? One of the worst performances I've ever seen from a ref. Or is it one of the best?