Origin Two

The Passenger

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Wow, what a performance.

All credit must go to Queensland for bouncing back from origin One. Despite being a one-point win it was probably the most convincing one point win i've seen in a while. On any other night it could've been a comfortable two or three try win. But that in itself is a testament to the courage under fire attitude of this Queensland side that they didn't allow that to happen and kept themselves in the game.

But moving on to Origin II and wow, they just dominated. Dominated the way NSW did for the first 30 minutes of Origin I, except for the entire 80 minutes.

The entire forward pack went forward. Thurston and Hunt created, and Mogg finished. Nothing NSW could've done. I thought Lockyer was lucky to get MOM as his game was probably solid but not much more - did some very good kicks but not much running or passing. Thurston for mine, or Civoneciva should've been MOM.

They'll be full of confidence and hard to stop at Melbourne.

As for NSW, well Anasta must be gone. I thought he was pretty average (solid at best) in origin I and that was probably masked by the fact we were dominant and won the game. Finch showed he's still an inconsistent footballer, and the difference between his best and worst is far too great for this level. This was part of the problem Thurston had to begin in SOO but he found his feet quickly, and he's much younger than Finch. Finch should be well and truly over this inconsistent form at his age, but has shown tonight he's still not a mature footballer.

Aside from Finch and Anasta, none of the Blues actually played poorly. The forwards only played as well as they were allowed to by the rampaging Queensland forwards. Probably only Willie Mason had any sort effect for the Blues, and even that was minimal. O'Meley had no effect whatsoever as our go to hit up man, Buderus was quiet, Menzies made some uncharacteristic mistakes.... really didn't even notice the rest which is the problem. Queensland forwards came out rampaging, and our guys had too match them, and none of them could, and most of them didn't even try to match them. For all of Menzies mistakes tonight (I don't think i've ever said, read, or written that line about him causes he's been such a consistent footballer), at least he was in the thick of things trying to create something, unlike a couple of the other forwards.

The backs - Grothe and King made a couple of good breaks when they got the chance but that was it. You can't blame your outside backs for a game like that though. When your forwards get dominated, and your halves play so poorly, then your outside backs can't do anything.

Full credit must go to Queensland. As i said aside from the numbers 6 and 7, the rest of the NSW team didn't actually play badly. The Queenslanders just went to another level.

Bring on Melbourne.
 

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Minkus_Swan

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#2
Great victory by the QLDers.

They just bashed, smashed and grinded NSW into dust.

NSW:

Anasta was deplorable and Finch tried hard but he just couldn't do it. The problem for NSW was that key forwards were wasted during the middle of the game - i.e Hindmarsh spending 30 minutes on the bench, while QLD dominated. Instead of playing Wing for short bursts, he played lock forward - just dumb. O'Meley was awful - QLD just lined him up at every opportunity. To top it off NSW just dropped too many balls and nearly blew every chance they had.

QLD:

Had a great start and they just didn't let up. NSW were almost waiting for QLD to drop off their intensity - it never happened. Thurston simply played a blinder, Lockyer had one of his best origin performances for years, both Hunt and Mogg seemed a natural fit to this level and Tate put in a stellar performance. Their forwards just dominated, especially in defence

My man of the match: Jonathan Thurston
 
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QUEENSLANDERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Got them in the forwards where we had to lift knowing that it was our weak spot and once we got on top of that department we just allowed our halves to feed the backs (where to we keep finding them???) and put the pressure on. NSW in the end just had to crack and we opened them up time and time again.

Will be a different story of course in Origin 3 no doubt, NSW will make due changes will the all round and it WILL BE HUGE.

What odds an Origin comeback from one A. Johns????
 

Mikes4

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#4
robbieando said:
What odds an Origin comeback from one A. Johns????

They were showing him being intervewed by Vossy on the big screen at the game, and the crowd was absolutely booing the s
*** out of him.

Another funnyish moment was when at the start there was this little kid (7 yrs old) who had won a competition to place the game ball on the tee. When asked who his favourite QLDER was, he said, "I don't know." Anyway the MC then asked well where are you from sunny, and the kid replied, "NSW," whereby 50,000 people proceeded to boo this kid standing in the middle of the ground."
 

music_2000

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#5
most heartbreaking game of footy ever when you see only one man Tahu stand up and be counted and the rest let lockyer and the gang win the game
 

Kapow!!!

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#6
Mikes4 said:
They were showing him being intervewed by Vossy on the big screen at the game, and the crowd was absolutely booing the s
*** out of him.

Another funnyish moment was when at the start there was this little kid (7 yrs old) who had won a competition to place the game ball on the tee. When asked who his favourite QLDER was, he said, "I don't know." Anyway the MC then asked well where are you from sunny, and the kid replied, "NSW," whereby 50,000 people proceeded to boo this kid standing in the middle of the ground."
No, the funnier thing was when a drunk sitting behind us (at the game) yelled "Go Home you f***in fa*got". Funny in a I-can't-believe-he-just-said-that kind of way.

Poor kid, went off crying :(
 

Minkus_Swan

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#7
robbieando said:
What odds an Origin comeback from one A. Johns????
I bet you $10,000 in monopoly money that he does... :)

Seriously though, one of my mates said the same thing with a few minutes to go. It's now all set up as the game of the year - and it will be Joey's night! :thumbsu:
 
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