North of the border, our Queensland cousins will be sitting back and thinking they have this year’s State of Origin in the bag. They may be right to do so given Craig Wing is out and due to a lack of in-form five-eighth, Trent Barrett is the Lazarus of league. Of course, in their tortured logic, this somehow makes Queensland the underdogs. But NSW are really under the gun and some may question whether they should turn up at all.
But Origin can spring surprises. The loss of Wing will hurt as he added a lot of punch to the NSW attack when he came on. The blessing in disguise may be that Gidley moves into the hooker/halves role at some stage during the game and Hayne to fullback. if Hayne plays to his current form this could really add a lot to the Blues attack. Indeed, there may be a sekrit plan to hook Wallace, move Gids up to five-eighth and Barrett to half-back. To tell the truth, if things come down to that NSW will already have lost.
But the key will be the platform the forwards lay down.
I have a suspicion that some of the NSW forwards are the players that can easily dominate at club level but just can’t make the grade for Origin. I hope I’m wrong otherwise the selectors will have a disaster on their hands (though they will be the first to admit that it has nothing to do with them). Weymen and Poore will need to prove their mettle this game. Gallen that he can play aggressively smart and not aggressively stupid and not rise to any bait thrown his way. Watmough simply needs to show that he can tackle and not go missing when the team needs someone to stand up.
Their plan to blood youth was worth trying. But they have done so at the expense of some older players who would have done the job as well as provided experience and leadership to build a team around. Injuries haven’t been kind as well.
The advantage that Queensland has over NSW is that always seem to find players that can step up at Origin. The NSW have failed in that regards so far and this is their last chance. Adversity gives them a chance to show their inner-strength. Hope springs eternal in the Blue breast.
Bring it on!
Btw, live blogging of the game will start approximately 7:30pm AEST Wednesday night. Hope to see you then.
1 response so far ↓
Mountain Boy // Jun 24, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Not sure what Bellyache has in mind, but plan A, B, and C in Origin I failed badly. Maybe ignore what he says and try a combination of these ploys:
Create your own second-phase. What do I mean by this? Running forward out of dummy-half for 4 or 5 metres before delivering the ball to another forward – and so effectively making a run (albeit a short one) before offloading to the second runner – you will create your own second-phase. Instead of making just the 10 – you might make 15 or 20. It only takes a couple of these in a row and the opposition is quickly on the backfoot. Ennis does this one well, but Farah’s “quarterback to running-back” style flat hand-offs out of dummy-half just won’t do the trick in Origin – let alone most any week-to-week NRL game. Passing flat from dummy-half to a runner won’t make an impact here. Make that quick dart yourself before offloading.
Watch for any opportunity where the marker is not ready. Lap up an easy 10 metres or more. A few simple runs from dummy-half can wear a defence down just through the speed of it all. 4 dummy half runs can take less than 20 seconds – and in this time the defence may have had to run backwards 40 metres of more. Its not rocket science. Make sure you take every opportunity.
This one I call the ten second theory. I came up with this believe it or not watching Parramatta back in 2001. They used to terrorise defences by just keeping the ball alive. But here is the theory – While watching my beloved Panthers getting carved up by the Eels one day, I noticed that with the Eels on the attack and the ball not tied up inside 10 seconds, I would start to panic. I thought, if a spectator starts to panic after ten seconds, maybe the players are panicking too? So I feel its not just the fact that the ball is being thrown around. I believe that once a defence has been unable to tie up a tackle inside ten seconds, panic starts to set into the defensive line. Something in the mind of the defender’s head triggers panic after just ten seconds. Panic then leads to rash and often bad decision-making in defence. NSW – just for a laugh try out the ten second theory tonight and tell me how you go. I’ll be counting. Remember QLD will do this to you too.