2023 State of Origin Discussion

[BroncsFan]

Given all the frothing over him I forget he hasn't won the big one yet

The year that Wighton won it over him was glorious... NSWRL were frothing over him the whole year and then all of a sudden a nothing player in the media's eyes comes across and steals it because of their cooked judges.

Raiders finished 5th for **** sake haha

 

[mrslong]

Dally M means nothing. Lockyer never won one ffs.

Anyway, rewatching game 3 has me EXTREMELY worried about Ashley Klein reffing. He was dreadful in this game, absolutely dreadful, how we won it with him reffing and losing 2 early to concussions is a testament to this team.

I’m really worried about this Wednesday night. Not enough adversity in the Qld team, blues having all the drama. It’s a bad omen.

 

[mrslong]

Also, there’s NO WAY you could send Ponga into this. He’s be dead in minutes.

 

[Foordy]

reports that with Mitchell ruled out, QLD have made some positional changes.

HTF and Val will swap sides.

HTF was initially going to right centre to make up on Mitchell, but will now switch to the left to mark Tommy Turbo

 

[BroncsFan]

reports that with Mitchell ruled out, QLD have made some positional changes.

HTF and Val will swap sides.

HTF was initially going to right centre to make up on Mitchell, but will now switch to the left to mark Tommy Turbo

Wasnt there a report earlier in the camp that DCE was blowing up about Gilbert, Val and Cobbo on an edge stuffed up??

I'm pretty sure Val has been on the right side the whole prep so far.

Is the report out now because Petey B said it on 360 tonight, because I'm pretty sure the switch happened ages ago... it's just the NSWRL talking heads dont give a shit about anything other than blue

 

[DanG]

i dont get why everyone is so upset about gagai not being picked, he's been shit, both him and papali i said last year was their last series, josh accepted it and retired but gags not, if hes cranky about not getting picked well he must just be having a sook.

he didn't play great last series and 2021 wow he had a stinker, which was against trell who gave him a bath i can see why he wasnt picked with billy under the presumption that trell was playing.

2022

Game 1 - 16 tackles made, 9 missed
Game 2 - 24 tackles made, 8 missed
Game 3 - 10 tackles made, 2 missed

2021

Game 1 - 28 Made, 5 missed
Game 2 - 23 Made, 9 missed
Game 3 - 18 Made, 8 missed

He is a QLD legend, but at some stage you gotta let them go, he doesnt have the same speed anymore so i just dont see what he offers, especially with his defence

 

[Alec]

He's arguably QLD's greatest winger so he deserves some kind of recognition for his services. He was made to play centre because QLD's options there were absolute rubbish, and he had very mixed results, which was strange because he played so much centre at club level. Still, as a winger, he deserves all the accolades for his Origin career.

 

[Foordy]

i dont get why everyone is so upset about gagai not being picked, he's been shit, both him and papali i said last year was their last series, josh accepted it and retired but gags not, if hes cranky about not getting picked well he must just be having a sook.

he didn't play great last series and 2021 wow he had a stinker, which was against trell who gave him a bath i can see why he wasnt picked with billy under the presumption that trell was playing.

2022

Game 1 - 16 tackles made, 9 missed
Game 2 - 24 tackles made, 8 missed
Game 3 - 10 tackles made, 2 missed

2021

Game 1 - 28 Made, 5 missed
Game 2 - 23 Made, 9 missed
Game 3 - 18 Made, 8 missed

He is a QLD legend, but at some stage you gotta let them go, he doesnt have the same speed anymore so i just dont see what he offers, especially with his defence

I think you'll be hard pressed to find anyone who is upset about Gagai being dropped. (outside of Gagai himself)

you will however find plenty of people who are surprised. given it is a very un-QLD-like thing to do. what's even more unusual than dropping 1 player from a winning series is dropping 3

 

[BroncsFan]

I think you'll be hard pressed to find anyone who is upset about Gagai being dropped. (outside of Gagai himself)

you will however find plenty of people who are surprised. given it is a very un-QLD-like thing to do. what's even more unusual than dropping 1 player from a winning series is dropping 3

The Capewell probably surprises me the most now out of the 3, but originally I was more shocked for the other two at first.

KP I can understand because of his head knocks are a worry and even on the weekend he was copping head knocks in the first 5 mins and I was wondering if he would get dragged for a HIA... that's a big risk to take into an origin for a key position.

Gagai I thought would just be in the backline somewhere, and I don't mind the Hammer selection at the moment, because he was quite physical in his previous game at centre... it's weird because Hammer doesn't look or really play physical, but he clearly has it in him. I did think Gagai on the wing at the absolute worst, instead of Taulagi... however looking at his defensive stats last year it reminded me of how past it he did actually look in last year's series.

Capewell not being there this game gives me real worries if we do lose an outside back, because I don't know who can cover centre, etc. if someone goes down for a HIA. It probably has to be FIfita moving out to centre, but that takes away so much strike.

So it's not so much what Capewell brings, but his versatility... combine that with us basically having no second row depth and bringing in Gilbert to play edge, even though he looks every bit a middle forward.

I would've been happy with Gilbert on the bench basically instead of Arrow or even Flegler... I think Gilbert absolutely has to be in the team, but I'm not completely confident in him at second row, because he's always seemed like a middle forward. Even at the cows last year, Payten started him at 2nd row, but he subbed him every game so his bench 2nd rower (Luciano, etc.) didn't have to play 80mins every week and then Gilbert moved into the middle rotation.

Can Gilbert even play 80mins on an edge... in origin? or is Arrow going to have to jump out there at some point... just seems a bit odd given you know what Capewell brings and he would've been a pretty low risk option.

 

[Sproj]

Particularly when he has, it could be argued, dropped for Tualagi who is as average as a player gets.

 

[1910]

I think you'll be hard pressed to find anyone who is upset about Gagai being dropped. (outside of Gagai himself)

you will however find plenty of people who are surprised. given it is a very un-QLD-like thing to do. what's even more unusual than dropping 1 player from a winning series is dropping 3

No, it's not, they dropped five players from game three 2017 before game one 2018.

Six changes from '20 game three to game one 2021.

 

[Super Freak]

No, it's not, they dropped five players from game three 2017 before game one 2018.

Six changes from '20 game three to game one 2021.

I don't recall this.

Slater and Gillett were injured, Smith and Cronk retired. The only player you could say was dropped was Glasby.

Regarding the six changes for 2021, both Papalii and Collins were injured, Friend retired, both Lee brothers and Allan were only playing in 2020 because of injuries to others.

 

[mrslong]

Pretty sure it’s not a first to drop players. Thaiday, Myles, Harrison and Johnson were all dropped iirc - none of them were given the opportunity to retire from origin footy. Thaiday in particular was never allowed to play his 30th game and was pissed about it.

the “pick and stick” stuff started when nsw kept shuffling their halves but because Qld picked smith Thurston and Locky in 05, lost the series and stuck with them in 06 and to a lesser extent refused to replace khunt with slater people started saying “Qld don’t just change their halves like nsw do”

 

[1910]

I don't recall this.

Slater and Gillett were injured, Smith and Cronk retired. The only player you could say was dropped was Glasby.

Regarding the six changes for 2021, both Papalii and Collins were injured, Friend retired, both Lee brothers and Allan were only playing in 2020 because of injuries to others.

So yeah, changes to winning teams like I said. Not unusual at all or Un-Queensland.

 

[Mustafur]

I don't get Gagai being dropped and Capewell, I think when your adding players like Walsh in, it is good to have some older players in there as well and both have played well for QLD in the past as well as both not playing any worse then previous seasons, club form wise.

Having Hammer come in and then moving Val to another side to accommodate it is quite a bit of change for a player who is already playing out of position in club land, seemed like an obvious Wing choice to me tbh.


Same thing with Gilbert who looks way better in the middle and will be playing edge on the opposite side to what he did when he was last playing edge.

But this is Billy's era and he hasn't failed soo far so lets see how it goes, I think he definitely does things differently than past QLD coaches favouring Youth and more willing to take risks.

 

[1910]

Pretty sure it’s not a first to drop players. Thaiday, Myles, Harrison and Johnson were all dropped iirc - none of them were given the opportunity to retire from origin footy. Thaiday in particular was never allowed to play his 30th game and was pissed about it.

the “pick and stick” stuff started when nsw kept shuffling their halves but because Qld picked smith Thurston and Locky in 05, lost the series and stuck with them in 06 and to a lesser extent refused to replace khunt with slater people started saying “Qld don’t just change their halves like nsw do”

You're right and it's exaclty what Miles, Lockyer and Slater are trying to avoid. They got stung by Myles and Thaiday in 17 they were loyal to them for game one and they got trampled and then had to change it for game two and come back from one nil down.

It's harsh but they learnt you make the call a game early not a game late.

 

[Fitzy]

Whats the bet if Walsh has a blinder that on the post game panel Gus Gould tries to claim he was instrumental in identifying Walsh like he does every two seconds.

 

[Harry Sack]

Pretty sure it’s not a first to drop players. Thaiday, Myles, Harrison and Johnson were all dropped iirc - none of them were given the opportunity to retire from origin footy. Thaiday in particular was never allowed to play his 30th game and was pissed about it.

the “pick and stick” stuff started when nsw kept shuffling their halves but because Qld picked smith Thurston and Locky in 05, lost the series and stuck with them in 06 and to a lesser extent refused to replace khunt with slater people started saying “Qld don’t just change their halves like nsw do”

True, although I've always thought the "pick and stick" was more a mid series thing? As in QLD lose game 1 and pretty much stick with the same side, injuries depending....NSW on the other hand lose game 1 by 2 points and swap out half the team.