POST GAME Game II Discussion Thread

[Fozz]

Bet keary wishes he stuck to his guns instead of becoming a turncoat.

Once you go blue, you never go back. We won't have them.

 

[Galah]

Once you go blue, you never go back. We won't have them.

Someone from the qld team should send him a qld jersey with the name at the back “YOU WISH”

I still don’t know how he went through with it.

 

[BroncsFan]

The Walker selection is an admission from the selectors that they got it wrong in the first game. They wanted Walker in the team, but just couldn't bring themselves to pick him after all Keary had achieved in the past couple of years. Had the series taken place mid-season, it would have been the right choice, but after the Roosters last three efforts it was clear that Walker was the better candidate. It will be interesting to see how Walker plays. He's shown he can come on and look likely when he doesn't have the pressure of building a game, but last year he really struggled to make an impact to the point where Fittler spectacularly dragged him off the field mid-way through the game. With this squad and the style they play, I honestly wonder if they'd be better off picking Wighton there and picking Crichton in the centres.

I'm not sold on the Walker selection.

I think what made Cody dangerous in the NRL was how Souths used him after Latrell went down.

To me Cody was used as a genuine second receiving five eighth. In the current NRL that role is largely played by the fullback with the halves playing either side.

When Souths lost Latrell they allowed Cody to pop up on the other side of the field and often times he was finishing off tries in the same fashion as a fullback.

I don't think Fittler will play him in that style only because split halves is so ingrained in current rugby league that trying to move away from that in a rep camp will be a massive task.

If that is the case then Cody will be on the left edge and Cleary on the right and they may not link all that much. Cody may end up like last year where he wasn't able to get himself into the game, except this time they will probably send more ball to his side and he may look to force things.

I thought the use of Cody in Game 1 worked extremely well for them, because he was basically playing as a second fullback. I feel Keary is also used to playing as the left edge half (as he does for the roosters), they just didn't give him the ball and probably left most of the halves play with Cleary. I actually thought Keary created more chances than Cleary did... he's just not the NSWRL golden child so he gets punted.

I think NSW'men thinking Cody and Keary will come in and be able to play the same way they do in NRL is disregarding the structure that their NRL clubs play with. Cody has freedom to pop up wherever he wants... Keary pops up on both side of the ruck and knows where all his players will be.

I probably agree that Wighton might be the better choice simply because his running game can create chances on its own so he's not reliant on structure or supporting cast. Wighton pretty much does all his play on the left edge as well so he doesn't really need to float around the field to have an impact

 

[Alec]

Just noticed the NSW bench. They are going with 4 middle players? How are they going to decent find minutes for all of these guys?

 

[Sirlee oldman]

It’s very interesting that most of the changes NSW have made are in the forwards. It seems like an admission that we were better there. I think our pack is better this week and our bench is better than they have. They are really relying on Walker to spark their attack and the centres to improve.

 

[Petch67]

Bet keary wishes he stuck to his guns instead of becoming a turncoat.

Nsw will forever whinge about GI ....hopefully we take this series and they can whinge about keary being a qlder

 

[Galah]

Nsw will forever whinge about GI ....hopefully we take this series and they can whinge about keary being a qlder

Maybe keary was making the ultimate sacrifice in running a covert QLD operation by pretending to be a blue.

nah he’s a turncoat.

 

[Wolfie]

This lack of Carrigan in this side is disturbing.

 

[BroncsFan]

This lack of Carrigan in this side is disturbing.

I thought he might've been a more ready made replacement for Welch compared to Lui, if they wanted to go like for like.

I think Lui will bring energy if he starts, but how long can he go in origin...

Arrow probably the most likely to perform in the same way as Welch, but I can understand wanting to have a bit of experience to bring off the bench instead of leaving it to two rookies

 

[Lockysillegitimatechild]

This lack of Carrigan in this side is disturbing.

It's actually ridiculous that he isn't even in the 21. Really mind boggling considering hess has even got a run.
Yes Lui Has had a good year but put him in the Broncos team this year and he doesn't come out looking anywhere near as good as carrigan. Plus carrigan is deadset made for origin, arrow fixing up the middle when he came on and the past 40 years have shown the players who are hard workers with 1%s, defence and tough hit ups are needed far more then anyone in your pack.

 

[Sproj]

It's actually ridiculous that he isn't even in the 21. Really mind boggling considering hess has even got a run.
Yes Lui Has had a good year but put him in the Broncos team this year and he doesn't come out looking anywhere near as good as carrigan. Plus carrigan is deadset made for origin, arrow fixing up the middle when he came on and the past 40 years have shown the players who are hard workers with 1%s, defence and tough hit ups are needed far more then anyone in your pack.

Carrigan has a penalty or three in him and gets a little lazy when tired, he isn’t ready for origin yet, sorry Wolfie.

 

[Galah]

Carrigan has a penalty or three in him and gets a little lazy when tired, he isn’t ready for origin yet, sorry Wolfie.

35mins off the bench? He’d be pretty damn good, he was playing wayyyyyyy to many minutes this year.

 

[Wolfie]

Carrigan has a penalty or three in him and gets a little lazy when tired, he isn’t ready for origin yet, sorry Wolfie.

I dont agree he gets lazy. Its more he plays too much under fatigue. He never actually stops looking for work and probably tries to do too much. I wouldnt call it laziness. He is built for Origin imo, and i dont think Wayne would flog him into the ground like we have.

I dont really look at stats as i think they are mostly a load of rubbish, but it would be interesting to see how many penalties per game he gives away because i cant recall anything out of the ordinary with him there.

 

[winslow_wong]

This lack of Carrigan in this side is disturbing.

Wasn’t he the first to run on to the ground to congratulate the team after the win? Maybe he’s playing the hype man role, it’s important

 

[Sproj]

I dont agree he gets lazy. Its more he plays too much under fatigue. He never actually stops looking for work and probably tries to do too much. I wouldnt call it laziness. He is built for Origin imo, and i dont think Wayne would flog him into the ground like we have.

I dont really look at stats as i think they are mostly a load of rubbish, but it would be interesting to see how many penalties per game he gives away because i cant recall anything out of the ordinary with him there.

Yeah lazy was wrong, he understandably gets fatigued. If more players fall over, he’ll get in but I’m not unhappy at all not to see him in there. His time will come.

 

[Wolfie]

Yeah lazy was wrong, he understandably gets fatigued. If more players fall over, he’ll get in but I’m not unhappy at all not to see him in there. His time will come.

I'm unhappy!

 

[broncsgoat]

Someone from the qld team should send him a qld jersey with the name at the back “YOU WISH”

I still don’t know how he went through with it.

Getting paid $100k for 3 weeks work is probably how he went through with it (less now that he’s been dropped)

 

[WASSHHH]

I thought he might've been a more ready made replacement for Welch compared to Lui, if they wanted to go like for like.

I think Lui will bring energy if he starts, but how long can he go in origin...

Arrow probably the most likely to perform in the same way as Welch, but I can understand wanting to have a bit of experience to bring off the bench instead of leaving it to two rookies

Just on Arrow; I thought he was fantastic in Game I. He finished the year with the Titans playing nothing more than OK football, just seemed a little like his head wasn’t truly in it. But he really stepped up and provided great input and balance to an otherwise inexperienced (forwards at least) bench.

In fact, I was quite worried about our bench as a whole, particularly when I compared it to NSW’s, but they significantly outplayed their opposites. It was a great effort by all of them.