Perhaps a last word from an article in today's The Guardian (The Australian edition is one of my free daily news papers). I think that he sums it up very well. As I've previously said ... woe betide us after JT & Cronk retire next year.
Doug .. SWMBO & I agree on three things ..Religion, Politics & SOO, and are free to have individual thoughts on less important things.
Thursday 22 June 2017 05.00 AESTLast modified on Thursday 22 June 2017 05.01 AEST
After 50 minutes of Game II of State of Origin XXXVI this journalist and I would suggest several other chroniclers of recent history was cranking up the keyboard with variations of Its over Queensland dynasty busted by marauding blue hordes. Thirty minutes later I wondered how I could be so naïve, so foolish. How could I forget the old but true edict, Never write off a champion.
Because Queensland has four champions Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk. Though they were bashed up, run over and down by 10 points at half-time, they came out in the second stanza, with the Origin series on the line and did what they always do play cool, smart, brilliant and perfectly-executed rugby league. And they showed that even with a combined age of 136, that there is plenty of life in these old dogs yet.
Again, how could one ever doubt that with that quartet on the field that Queenslands dynasty would live while they did? The proof was there on the field. The Blues first 50 minutes was effectively an extension of the 80 minutes from Game I: their giant forwards rumbled up the middle and hit hard, James Tedesco ran off that, and the Blues halves James Maloney and Mitchell Pearce fed big, fast men quick, slick ball.
All three NSW tries, scored by backs, were made by big marauders in the middle. And you felt it just wouldnt get any better for Queensland. When Aaron Woods went off, David Klemmer came one. Josh Jackson was strong, Jake Trbojevic was stronger. Wade Graham made some nice plays.
Andrew Fifita took some stopping but was subdued with gang tackles. Yet you felt it didnt matter that the Blues were running roughshod through the Maroons. And that the great Queensland dynasty was run and done. The kings are dead. Long live the kings.
But the kings werent dead, because the heirs apparent didnt kill them. Rather the Blues shut up shop. They dropped the ball, gave away penalties. They didnt do too much in attack and when they did they threw dud balls into touch.
The bottom line is this: they didnt try to win; they tried not to lose. It was not the performance of an heir to the throne. It was staid, uncreative, limp. And itll hurt them to hear it but NSW choked. They went into their shell. In 30 minutes they went from dynasty busters to bumbling Blues, eyes wide in the headlights. Chokers. What else could you call it?
Post-match Andrew Johns described the Blues second half as the dumbest half of football NSW have ever played. His point was that Thurstons shoulder was almost hanging off. A pretty simple paradigm of rugby league is that if theres blood in the water, send in the sharks.
Yet no-one among their number had the nous to throw big bodies at the great man. Not the halves, Maloney and Pearce. Not the captain, Boyd Cordner, lauded as a doer rather than a talker the Blues needed both. They appeared to have neither. They needed follow someone to run into Thurstons shoulder, again and again.
Minute-by-minute: Johnathan Thurstons late conversion gave the Maroons victory over the Blues in Game II in Sydney to send the series to a decider in Brisbane
Read more
And yet there was nothing from the Blues coaches box. A message wasnt sent out. Wally Lewis couldve been talking directly to Cordner, Pearce and Maloney when he said post-match: The great players take control in the difficult times. They demand the ball. They put the play on that inspires everyone around them.
NSW did that for the first 40 minutes. It shouldve been what they continued to do. Instead they clocked off. They offered Queensland a chance to get back into the game and that was not wasted.
And so to Brisbane and a wet dream for Channel Nines ad sales staff: a decider in Game III, in Brisbane and in Cooper Cronks last game for Queensland. It will likely be the most-watched television program of 2017. And it will be unlikely that Queensland are written off as long as theres breath in Smith, Thurston, Slater and Cronk. The dynasty lives. Never write off the champions.
DMaxer said
10:54 AM Jun 23, 2017
No Cupie, I agree. Never write off champions nor the influence of the cash strapped NRL and Channel Nine advertising department on the eyesight of referees.
Aus-Kiwi said
11:27 AM Jun 23, 2017
JT is out for season . It's STATE of origin. What state the team signed you up ., The country doesn't come into it .. Plenty of Islanders in NRL too ..
Dougwe said
12:37 PM Jun 23, 2017
Mmmmm, game 3 just got real interesting.
JT is out! Retired.
He needs op on shoulder and made the big news a short time ago.
DMaxer said
01:12 PM Jun 23, 2017
I hope that isn't the case that he has played his last game Doug. Not only is he a champion on the field,more importantly, he is a champion off the field. I don't think he would have a knocker on either side of the border.
Dougwe said
02:12 PM Jun 23, 2017
Yep, retired from SOO and any other Rep games DM. The way I understand it listening to the latest info he might come back next season to finish his contract with the Cowboys but time only will tell that now.
Personally I am a JT fan even though I follow the 'Storm' with the Cowboys a very close second and think it better for his health to fully retire now before permanent damage is done to his shoulder or any other body part for that matter.
Quick and good recovery JT.
macka17 said
04:35 PM Jun 23, 2017
Win or lose.
Queensland or the other ones.
Don't really matter.
It'll be a GREAT Game if ref's let it flow.
and EVERY Dirty play gets 5 in the bin. Both sides.
That'll sort 'em out.
Go Queensland.
Just far enuff to get more points hey.
I got my bottle, and bar o' Chockie ready in fridge.
Year AFTER next. Is the one the Blues might start winning a couple from.
For a while. Maybe.
After out key players have retired.
Goldfinger said
07:08 PM Jun 23, 2017
Does Qld have a kicker as good as Maloney....?..I think not...and with JT out, the game could well be decided on accurate kicking..as it so often is these days.....
My heart says Qld, however my head now tells me the Blues will win the Series.....by 10 points....5 x 2 accurate kicks by Maloney....Hoo Roo
P.S. JT is and always will be 'The Man'.....I would have his baby if he asked me....lmao....
Cupie said
09:06 PM Jun 23, 2017
Goldfinger wrote:
Does Qld have a kicker as good as Maloney....?..I think not...and with JT out, the game could well be decided on accurate kicking..as it so often is these days.....
My heart says Qld, however my head now tells me the Blues will win the Series.....by 10 points....5 x 2 accurate kicks by Maloney....Hoo Roo
P.S. JT is and always will be 'The Man'.....I would have his baby if he asked me....lmao....
No but ... don't forget Cameron Smith .... He has kicked 915 goals @ 73.2% ... Not as good as Maloney's 841 @ 80.4%, but pretty good.
(Perhaps the best of all in the modern game was that Tripoli born man again, Al Masri, kicked 1087 @ 81.9%)
I hope you are wrong. But the odds against us lengthen. It will take a marathon effort for the Maroons to win though. Another 'but' we have done it before.
(stats from NRL Project & Wikipedia)
-- Edited by Cupie on Friday 23rd of June 2017 09:16:21 PM
Goldfinger said
11:49 PM Jun 23, 2017
Agreed Cupie...I have utmost respect for Cameron Smith..however..no Corey Parker, no JT puts a huge responsibility on Cameron in addition to his Captaincy etc.....all Maloney has to do in between hassling and getting in the faces of Qld players, with an occasional 'try'..is kick......I fear the Blues will dominate in too many areas this time and may even get "fair treatment" from the Refs as well......
Would you believe I played 2 Brisbane Metropolitan Area Youth Grand Finals at Lang Park, now Suncorp Stad, in the early 1960's when I was a younger whipper snapper..we won them both.....granted we had Johnny Rhodes as' winger' in our team who went on to Represent Aust in the 1970 World Cup!........as a second rower when I still had a neck...two broken clavicles =collarbones, and broken/dislocated fingers later....after 5 years I gave up without achieving any stardom....lmao....memories..my knees remind me every morning..!....Hoo Roo
-- Edited by Goldfinger on Friday 23rd of June 2017 11:55:50 PM
Cupie said
10:29 AM Jun 24, 2017
Goldfinger wrote:
Agreed Cupie...I have utmost respect for Cameron Smith..however..no Corey Parker, no JT puts a huge responsibility on Cameron in addition to his Captaincy etc.....all Maloney has to do in between hassling and getting in the faces of Qld players, with an occasional 'try'..is kick......I fear the Blues will dominate in too many areas this time and may even get "fair treatment" from the Refs as well......
Would you believe I played 2 Brisbane Metropolitan Area Youth Grand Finals at Lang Park, now Suncorp Stad, in the early 1960's when I was a younger whipper snapper..we won them both.....granted we had Johnny Rhodes as' winger' in our team who went on to Represent Aust in the 1970 World Cup!........as a second rower when I still had a neck...two broken clavicles =collarbones, and broken/dislocated fingers later....after 5 years I gave up without achieving any stardom....lmao....memories..my knees remind me every morning..!....Hoo Roo
-- Edited by Goldfinger on Friday 23rd of June 2017 11:55:50 PM
My record is nowhere as noteworthy as yours.
I only played in several games for Ipswich Schoolboys against Brisbane and Toowoomba in the old Bulimba Cup curtain raisers. I was selected for Qld Schoolboys but our family finances weren't up to it, so that was the end of my RL career.
Others in our team included many future Bulimba Cup players including Ken Self and the Australian winger/centre Jeff Denman.
Dennis Flannery was our hero in those days, along with Dud Beattie & the little known Boxhead Jackwitch. Ipswich had a wealth of hard men, underground coal miners who would play on Saturday afternoon following a morning shift down the mines (just like the English Midlands players).
Perhaps a last word from an article in today's The Guardian (The Australian edition is one of my free daily news papers). I think that he sums it up very well. As I've previously said ... woe betide us after JT & Cronk retire next year.
Doug .. SWMBO & I agree on three things ..Religion, Politics & SOO, and are free to have individual thoughts on less important things.
.......................................................................................................................................................................
Matt Cleary
Thursday 22 June 2017 05.00 AESTLast modified on Thursday 22 June 2017 05.01 AEST
After 50 minutes of Game II of State of Origin XXXVI this journalist and I would suggest several other chroniclers of recent history was cranking up the keyboard with variations of Its over Queensland dynasty busted by marauding blue hordes. Thirty minutes later I wondered how I could be so naïve, so foolish. How could I forget the old but true edict, Never write off a champion.
Queensland keep State of Origin hopes alive with thrilling late win over NSW
Because Queensland has four champions Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk. Though they were bashed up, run over and down by 10 points at half-time, they came out in the second stanza, with the Origin series on the line and did what they always do play cool, smart, brilliant and perfectly-executed rugby league. And they showed that even with a combined age of 136, that there is plenty of life in these old dogs yet.
Again, how could one ever doubt that with that quartet on the field that Queenslands dynasty would live while they did? The proof was there on the field. The Blues first 50 minutes was effectively an extension of the 80 minutes from Game I: their giant forwards rumbled up the middle and hit hard, James Tedesco ran off that, and the Blues halves James Maloney and Mitchell Pearce fed big, fast men quick, slick ball.
All three NSW tries, scored by backs, were made by big marauders in the middle. And you felt it just wouldnt get any better for Queensland. When Aaron Woods went off, David Klemmer came one. Josh Jackson was strong, Jake Trbojevic was stronger. Wade Graham made some nice plays.
Andrew Fifita took some stopping but was subdued with gang tackles. Yet you felt it didnt matter that the Blues were running roughshod through the Maroons. And that the great Queensland dynasty was run and done. The kings are dead. Long live the kings.
But the kings werent dead, because the heirs apparent didnt kill them. Rather the Blues shut up shop. They dropped the ball, gave away penalties. They didnt do too much in attack and when they did they threw dud balls into touch.
The bottom line is this: they didnt try to win; they tried not to lose. It was not the performance of an heir to the throne. It was staid, uncreative, limp. And itll hurt them to hear it but NSW choked. They went into their shell. In 30 minutes they went from dynasty busters to bumbling Blues, eyes wide in the headlights. Chokers. What else could you call it?
Post-match Andrew Johns described the Blues second half as the dumbest half of football NSW have ever played. His point was that Thurstons shoulder was almost hanging off. A pretty simple paradigm of rugby league is that if theres blood in the water, send in the sharks.
Yet no-one among their number had the nous to throw big bodies at the great man. Not the halves, Maloney and Pearce. Not the captain, Boyd Cordner, lauded as a doer rather than a talker the Blues needed both. They appeared to have neither. They needed follow someone to run into Thurstons shoulder, again and again.
State of Origin 2017 Game 2: Queensland Maroons beat NSW Blues 18-16 as it happened
And yet there was nothing from the Blues coaches box. A message wasnt sent out. Wally Lewis couldve been talking directly to Cordner, Pearce and Maloney when he said post-match: The great players take control in the difficult times. They demand the ball. They put the play on that inspires everyone around them.
NSW did that for the first 40 minutes. It shouldve been what they continued to do. Instead they clocked off. They offered Queensland a chance to get back into the game and that was not wasted.
And so to Brisbane and a wet dream for Channel Nines ad sales staff: a decider in Game III, in Brisbane and in Cooper Cronks last game for Queensland. It will likely be the most-watched television program of 2017. And it will be unlikely that Queensland are written off as long as theres breath in Smith, Thurston, Slater and Cronk. The dynasty lives. Never write off the champions.
No Cupie, I agree. Never write off champions nor the influence of the cash strapped NRL and Channel Nine advertising department on the eyesight of referees.
JT is out! Retired.
He needs op on shoulder and made the big news a short time ago.
I hope that isn't the case that he has played his last game Doug. Not only is he a champion on the field,more importantly, he is a champion off the field. I don't think he would have a knocker on either side of the border.
Personally I am a JT fan even though I follow the 'Storm' with the Cowboys a very close second and think it better for his health to fully retire now before permanent damage is done to his shoulder or any other body part for that matter.
Quick and good recovery JT.
Queensland or the other ones.
Don't really matter.
It'll be a GREAT Game if ref's let it flow.
and EVERY Dirty play gets 5 in the bin. Both sides.
That'll sort 'em out.
Go Queensland.
Just far enuff to get more points hey.
I got my bottle, and bar o' Chockie ready in fridge.
Year AFTER next. Is the one the Blues might start winning a couple from.
For a while. Maybe.
After out key players have retired.
My heart says Qld, however my head now tells me the Blues will win the Series.....by 10 points....5 x 2 accurate kicks by Maloney....Hoo Roo
P.S. JT is and always will be 'The Man'.....I would have his baby if he asked me....lmao....
No but ... don't forget Cameron Smith .... He has kicked 915 goals @ 73.2% ... Not as good as Maloney's 841 @ 80.4%, but pretty good.
(Perhaps the best of all in the modern game was that Tripoli born man again, Al Masri, kicked 1087 @ 81.9%)
I hope you are wrong. But the odds against us lengthen. It will take a marathon effort for the Maroons to win though. Another 'but' we have done it before.
(stats from NRL Project & Wikipedia)
-- Edited by Cupie on Friday 23rd of June 2017 09:16:21 PM
Agreed Cupie...I have utmost respect for Cameron Smith..however..no Corey Parker, no JT puts a huge responsibility on Cameron in addition to his Captaincy etc.....all Maloney has to do in between hassling and getting in the faces of Qld players, with an occasional 'try'..is kick......I fear the Blues will dominate in too many areas this time and may even get "fair treatment" from the Refs as well......
Would you believe I played 2 Brisbane Metropolitan Area Youth Grand Finals at Lang Park, now Suncorp Stad, in the early 1960's when I was a younger whipper snapper..we won them both.....granted we had Johnny Rhodes as' winger' in our team who went on to Represent Aust in the 1970 World Cup!........as a second rower when I still had a neck...two broken clavicles =collarbones, and broken/dislocated fingers later....after 5 years I gave up without achieving any stardom....lmao....memories..my knees remind me every morning..!....Hoo Roo
-- Edited by Goldfinger on Friday 23rd of June 2017 11:55:50 PM
My record is nowhere as noteworthy as yours.
I only played in several games for Ipswich Schoolboys against Brisbane and Toowoomba in the old Bulimba Cup curtain raisers. I was selected for Qld Schoolboys but our family finances weren't up to it, so that was the end of my RL career.
Others in our team included many future Bulimba Cup players including Ken Self and the Australian winger/centre Jeff Denman.
Dennis Flannery was our hero in those days, along with Dud Beattie & the little known Boxhead Jackwitch. Ipswich had a wealth of hard men, underground coal miners who would play on Saturday afternoon following a morning shift down the mines (just like the English Midlands players).
I just went on to chase girls & play hockey.