Game III Discussion

[Morkel]

If Daley has the balls that Walters showed, he'd publicly blacklist Dugan and Ferguson for next season. Except of course he can't, because he may well not be the NSW coach next season.

Add that to the Fifita tantrum and it's no wonder the blues crumbled.

I'm guessing that those who thought Walters was too harsh on the young Maroons last year can see the positive effects it has had. No way we win this year if being a bunch of soft partyboys is tolerated in Qld's ranks.

 

[Sproj]

Yep, I think Walters should be getting a lot of credit for what he has done as coach. Some of his selections have been surprising but he has shown he has known what he wants and has backed himself to get it. Certainly showing he may well be a very good future coach of the Broncos option.

 

[Dexter]

If that style qld played on wednesday is what he brings then the sooner the better.

 

[GCBRONCO]

I got the solution for NSW, send their players into the Queensland camp for the duration of the series and keep them away from any NSW coaching influence whatsoever, then they might just have a chance.

 

[MaroubraBroncos]

They were saying on 360 that Fergo and Dugan snuck away to a pub down at lennox head for a good 8+ hrs. Also anyone see the Mcguire sledge ? It's not even that bad. Fifita is the biggest snowflake for bringing that up if it's true! "we knew you were shit" and "you are just shit *****".

 

[Foordy]

NSW State of Origin loss is symptomatic of a culture gone wrong
PAUL KENT, The Daily Telegraph43 minutes ago

A GREAT silence falls over the Blues. Freed from another Origin series shortcoming, they are still not free from their Origin pain.
Everything we believed is a fraud. The strides made in culture, their belief in what it meant to play for NSW, all a puff of smoke.
Not everybody let the team down. But those who did, did so badly.

As a unit there is not a lot of strength in the Blues. Not everywhere, where it is absolutely necessary in Origin.
Some are wonderful young men. Captain Boyd Cordner grew this series.


Josh Jackson is welcome in any team you care to name. Jake Trbojevic is a player you can build a team around for the next 10 years.

Coach Laurie Daley went beyond the call for his players, protecting their reputations against the loss. Cradle them too tightly, though, and they die in your arms.

Some players let down Daley and their teammates tremendously. They should never be picked for NSW again.

Several days before the game Daley told David Klemmer he was going to start the game in place of Andrew Fifita. It was a sound tactic.

Queensland negated Fifita in Game II when they got out early from marker and chopped him around the legs. The moment Fifita feels his legs are being attacked he begins to crab across field.

A starting pair of Aaron Woods and Klemmer provided other benefits. One a ballplayer, the other pure crash and barge.
It also allowed a fresh Fifita to come on once the sting had left the defence, where it is assumed he would be more threatening.
Fifita did not much like the switch and the story broke in The Sunday Telegraph.

Asked a question, Klemmer could not lie.

“Yes, I was told I was starting,” Klemmer said. “But I didn’t. That is all I will say.”

Most reports, the politest way they can be described, are that Fifita aggressively questioned the tactic, to the point Daley relented and allowed him to start, leaving the rest of the squad frustrated.

What happened to this culture of team buy-in? They were sacrificing a sound strategy to please a player?

Fifita is big and quick across the ground and should stand like a colossus in the game. Yet Fifita is a punchline in the Queensland camp.

They laughed solidly when he whinged after Game II that he was sledged. He was angry, he told all who would listen, but he would not say what was said that angered him.

He seemed to have no trouble sooking about what was said on the field but, pressed for detail, then saying what happens on the field stays on the field.

It later emerged that Josh McGuire — who put it on the line verbally and then backed it up physically, winning the admiration of plenty — told Fifita “We knew you were shit” and “You are just shit c ... s”.

The Queenslanders, all solid men, knew Fifita’s salty tears said everything they believed about Fifita. They exposed it, too.

At the same time as we were being sold on this new Blues culture it also emerged in the decider fallout that Blake Ferguson and Josh Dugan were spending their day off at the Lennox Point Hotel.

This was after the bonding period was shut down. If nothing else, it shows where their heads were at.

The disappointment in all this is that this is exactly what the Blues have been telling us they are so slowly building towards — identifying and correcting this weakness in culture.

The Blues spoke so often about it they had many of us convinced.

We have now learned it is one thing to recognise it and speak to it ... and another thing altogether to live it

The failings begin from the top down.

The Blues are called in to camp and as quickly as they can they fly to Kingscliff on the Queensland border. As far from the heart of NSW as they can be. Hessian netting is wrapped around the ground for training sessions to stop prying eyes seeing in.
The Blues isolate themselves, tucked in their own world.

Queensland embrace their State. They fly into towns like Toowoomba and Rockhampton and Mackay and spend a day signing autographs and absorbing what it means to represent these people.

Training is open and Queenslanders are welcomed to be part of it.

Their first words are always about the honour of playing for Queensland and not letting their state down.

The Blues merely speak to it, undone by a few, and still they do not learn

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport...g/news-story/d843934677142194cf6d8f6097332cb7

 

[Foordy]

It was interesting that Daley backed down an allowed to Fifita to start after his whining ... lol

 

[GCBRONCO]

Outstanding.

 

[tommy]

It was interesting that Daley backed down an allowed to Fifita to start after his whining ... lol

Unbelievable. If someone tried it on Bennett or Mal they would be out of the team. I guess it's true Daley is a really nice guy.

 

[Horseheadsup]

McGuire wasn't even sledging, just was speaking the truth.

 

[Broncs_Fan]

NSW got beaten on the day by a good team featuring some of the greatest players ever. I feel they are overanalysing the defeat.

 

[Dash]

NSW got beaten on the day by a good team featuring some of the greatest players ever. I feel they are overanalysing the defeat.

Exactly right. The NSW media and ex-players constantly bang on about NSW not 'getting Origin'. What they don't get is that they are consistently beaten by superior players, playing a superior gameplan. The more they delude themselves into thinking it's 'Origin Spirit', the more they will lose.

 

[Broncs_Fan]

Even Dugan and Ferguson having a few beers. It was so far out from the game. Such a beat up. NSW fans and media are clutching at straws trying to analyse why they lost like they should have won.

 

[BroncsFan]

The origin spirit aspect is just media BS on the mentality of the players and the mental aspects play a massive role in professional sports nowadays.

NSW in game 1 were fully switched on and coming in with a siege mentality forged from years of defeat. That siege mentality completely dissipated after they won game 1 so easily, their minds appeared to switch from being in a fight to thinking they were top dog after 80mins.

You could see it from the words afterwards and any reporter claiming that it only came from the media is utter bullshit... Teddy came out after game 1 claiming he wants to be a part of the next 10 year dynasty, NEXT like that would be the new norm for origin... gave zero respect to what qld had achieved for the last decade and assumed it was over.

You could see it when the NSW players hit the field smiling and laughing like the job was done. This is the issue with NSW they don't want to beat qld they just want to be the best. After game 1 they thought well we're the best again job done.

Unlike Qld who come out every game wanting to beat NSW and that's it, we don't care what anyone else says we just want to smash the blues. If we have the better team the pressure is on us to perform if we don't then the pressure is on them to prove it and beat us.

To some extent it's why we always consider ourselves underdogs, we always give the blues due respect and never underestimate they're team. Complacency is what happens to NSW hence the calls of why they don't get it. They think the best team just wins, that MUST be the reason why qld have won so many in the last decade

 

[Morkel]

Not just a few quiet beers...

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport...s/news-story/10dcb7cbdda68f836b000b845eca75b3

BLAKE Ferguson and Josh Dugan were still so drunk the day after an eight-hour alcohol-fuelled bender during NSW Blues camp before Origin III team staff hid them from the media, Ray Hadley has revealed.
Speaking on his 2GB radio morning show today Hadley shed more light on a Blues camp in utter chaos, which also included a journalist’s car being vandalised during the camp before game one.
The NRL commentator expanded on the story in today’s Daily Telegraph about Dugan and Ferguson’s trip to Lennox Point Hotel on the Friday before the Origin decider.
“What players do on a day off is up to them but I wouldn’t think it is very responsible going to a pub and getting on the drink,” Hadley said.

“Reports I get out of Kingscliff [say] either one or the two were so affected by alcohol the next day the team management — instead of sanctioning the players — actually hid them from view.
“(NSW Rugby League CEO) Dave Trodden is today saying he heard rumours but they weren’t rumours — everyone knows they were on the drink and hidden from media the next day.”
Hadley said Dugan and Ferguson pulled a similar stunt at the second Origin camp in Sydney when, the day after the team was announced, neither player showed up for media commitments the next day after a big night out drinking.
Hadley also revealed a journalist covering the Blues’ Origin III preparations had their car vandalised and players believed someone within the NSW camp was responsible.
“A journalist’s car was vandalised and graffitied in the lead up to the game. His name and other names were written on the car in quite a derogatory manner,” Hadley claimed.

“Players were speculating they knew who did it because someone was arcing up about the aforementioned journalist and that they ‘needed to be dealt with’.
“We’ll never know though because there was no CCTV in the car park.”
News of Dugan and Ferguson’s bender as well as the vandalism follow reports last week Dave Klemmer was meant to start the decider in place of Andrew Fifita before Fifita blew up at coaching staff who relented and allowed the Sharks prop to begin the match.
Hadley said NSW’s Origin set-up needed to be overhauled from the top down, including a clean-out of players, staff and coaches.

“We can’t have the lunatics running the asylum which is what we have now,” Hadley said.
“Yesterday I said it was time for coach Laurie Daley to go. He’s a nice fella but his time has come.
“They need to install a coach that won’t put up with this nonsense.
“I’m putting my money behind Dean Pay — a tough as teak front rower who played for his state and his country. He wouldn’t be putting up with that kind of nonsense.

“What has to happen if NSW are to have any success against this Queensland team is they need someone like Dean Pay who can take control and say ‘OK you mugs I’m in charge not you. If you want to get on the drink or argue about things then you won’t be in the team.’”
Hadley finished off his spray by calling for NSWRL to dock Dugan and Ferguson their $30,000 match fees for Origin III.
“People like that aren’t entitled to be part of state of origin and they should be shown the door,” Hadley said.

 

[tommy]

Thank God James Roberts wasn't part of their squad. Gotta say that's fucking hilarious vandalising a journo's car. I want to see pictures of the car.

 

[Accept]

Thank God James Roberts wasn't part of their squad. Gotta say that's fucking hilarious vandalising a journo's car. I want to see pictures of the car.

No guarantees that the Jet would have jettisoned off to Lennox with those two clowns but the temptation would of been there. I agree with you, probably a good thing he wasn't part of the squad. I hope they continue to snub him.

 

[Dexter]

Will Chambers - Melbourne Storm
Gavin Cooper - North Queensland Cowboys
Cooper Cronk - Melbourne Storm
Dane Gagai - Newcastle Knights
Matt Gillett - Brisbane Broncos
Tim Glasby - Melbourne Storm
Coen Hess - North Queensland Cowboys
Valentine Holmes - Cronulla Sharks
Ben Hunt - Brisbane Broncos
Josh McGuire - Brisbane Broncos
Michael Morgan - North Queensland Cowboys
Cameron Munster - Melbourne Storm
Dylan Napa - Sydney Roosters
Josh Papalii - Canberra Raiders
Billy Slater - Melbourne Storm
Cameron Smith (c) - Melbourne Storm
Jarrod Wallace - Gold Coast Titans

We had 9 players from game 1 still there in game 3 and there seems to be doubt about the Origin spirit being a factor or even real.
Kevvie transitioned this side in 2 games and was missing from last years series Parker, Inglis, Boyd, Thurston, Scott, Myles, Liilyman, Oates, O'Neill, Thaiday and Guerra.
If someone had said after game 3 last year that all those guys would be out not 1 person would have honestly thought we would be winning the 2017 series, but there is no such thing as origin spirit.
Clearly we are getting into a time where some Qlders have forgotten/never known why we hate the pricks so much.
Lets hope the players never find themselves in the same place.