State of Origin 2026

426Tlgerland said:
Our pack did not help the 6 and 7 in our team , Barnett was terrible and I think the other prop was just average , Hass back will,help and I would throw May in to start , Cleary come good later and yes with 12 only for qld but he did that bomb , kicked goals , Casey needs to be used off the bench he was good , Strange off the bench f mosses is back , Daley to get punted
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I have just a little reservation with May - he just doesn't run forward all the time, sometimes he wants to ball play as if he was the halfback. He needs to do one job and that's to go forward, Twal would've been better I reckon but if May cuts that bit on his play then ok.
 
Klein had both teams on top of each other for the first 30 minutes and allowed the teams to slow the ruck down. So we basically got nothing in the way of football and Sam Walkers kicking game was the difference. He also gave them a ton more latitude with the high tackles and implication of the six again rule.

I thought QLD were easily the better side for the majority of the game and without doubt the send off swang the game. Be nice to see Klein given the flick for the series, but the cupboard is pretty bare in the referee stakes
 
TheEnz said:
I agree, one thing i did notice though is that he is bloody slow. Gets up to speed quickly and a good finisher from 10m out, however in open space he gets run down quite easily, also noticed that with Critta, seems to have slowed down considerably.
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Agree…
NRL wingers need 3 main things, speed - good in the air and a decent carry…
He has 1, has only ever had 1.
Can hide that in a good team,
not in Origin.
Last night he lost his hands as well…

Who would have said Selwyn Cobbos game is going to shit all over To’o game before the match?

Its hard enough for us to win Origin at the best of times, i wish they’d start picking Origin players instead of playing favourites or picking them from Supercoach or youtube highlights…

They could get us a coach while they’re at it as well…
 
4jtigers said:
I have just a little reservation with May - he just doesn't run forward all the time, sometimes he wants to ball play as if he was the halfback. He needs to do one job and that's to go forward, Twal would've been better I reckon but if May cuts that bit on his play then ok.
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No point even discussing our props for Origin, they won’t be selected and rightly so.
 
TYGA said:
Its at the point now officials decide matches. Its every week and every match. The game is basically orchestrated.
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I agree with you, but maybe not about the specifics.

Officials are deciding matches on the smaller calls like uneven six-agains, imbalanced leniency and interpretations, etc. Some games, within the first 10 minutes, it is obvious which team the ref expects to win and their cognitive bias, or whatever it is, is clear even to an objective observer.

BUT... on the big calls, it's often taken out of their hands. For example, Ponga's tackle on Koula was direct contact to the head (whether shoulder or his own head) and resulted in a player being rubbed out of the game. Under the rules and the focus on protecting players from concussion or protecting the game from being sued in the future, this is a send-off.

I also agreed that Sualii's head contact with Walsh a few series ago was a send-off. The game has to protect the players, but also they have to be SEEN to be coming down hard on such foul play. Not only for player welfare and protecting the game but so parents watching can see that shot is being treated seriously and eradicated from the game so they feel safer for their kids to play.

This wasn't a howler by a ref that changed the game, this was a howler by a player that resulted in a send-off that changed the game. The onus must be on the player here. Ponga had no need to go high. He could have got lower and pole-axed Koula and we'd all be talking about what a great hit it was. But he was lazy, and also scared, went for a shoulder charge while the player's arms were pinned, and it went bad.

The ref made the only logical call in the larger context of this game.
 
TheEnz said:
I was at the game and whilst i think Ponga should have been 10 in the bin and not a send off, the officiating from Klien was generally woeful. QLD were offside on multiple occasions when NSW were in the attack red zone and he just ignored it. I agree that NSW would not have won without Ponga sent off, they were all at sea and the QLD forwards were dominating through the middle, even after Ponga went off QLD kept dominating the forwards battle. Our worst was AFB, he had no venom in attack or defence and Barnett was very ordinary. I would drop them both and bring in Haas and either Koloamatangi or Terrel May. Olakuato didnt have a great game, however he and Young were the only starting forwards that were hitting hard in both attack and defence. The tide started to turn a little when Cam Murray came on, prior to that we were getting mauled by their forward pack.
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I’m at a loss how Barnett ever gets picked.
Agree AFB did nothing either.
 
batboy said:
Agree…
NRL wingers need 3 main things, speed - good in the air and a decent carry…
He has 1, has only ever had 1.
Can hide that in a good team,
not in Origin.
Last night he lost his hands as well…

Who would have said Selwyn Cobbos game is going to shit all over To’o game before the match?

Its hard enough for us to win Origin at the best of times, i wish they’d start picking Origin players instead of playing favourites or picking them from Supercoach or youtube highlights…

They could get us a coach while they’re at it as well…
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Brian To'o has had multiple games where he's been the best player on the field for the Blues. Had a tough night last night but if there's anyone you'd back to bounce back its him.
 
Rock Hopper Steve said:
You didn't show the 1st image that shows his shoulder hitting his head first, very convenient.

It was lucky the shoulder was a glancing blow otherwise Koula would be in an ICU now.
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I looked at it 10 times and I come up with head to head , bunker says 10 minutes but Klein wanted to be man of the match , he should never ref another game
 
Just watching nine News and Laurie summed it up, “we were lucky and got away with it, but we’ll take it and I know we can play better”.
All true and very honest ! Laurie now has a couple of weeks to survey the wreckage and work out a better game plan.
The footy gods were wearing blue last night !
 
bptiger 0 said:
I looked at it 10 times and I come up with head to head , bunker says 10 minutes but Klein wanted to be man of the match , he should never ref another game
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The video replays weren't conclusive, thought the first image shown on the net was fairly clear be it minimal contact, a glancing blow but I didn't like the hit, intentional or not, he wanted to put him down to stop that try.

Never said either way what the outcome should've been send-off/sin bin, but it rocked Koula, it's not our heads getting buzzed.
 
Rock Hopper Steve said:
The video replays weren't conclusive, thought the first image shown on the net was fairly clear be it minimal contact, a glancing blow but I didn't like the intent, intentional or not.

Never said either way what the outcome should've been send-off/sin bin, but it rocked Koula, it's not our heads getting buzzed.
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I think if he’d used his arms and hit him head to head it would have been a sin bin but his arms were by his sides so it became almost a flying head butt.
Off, well done Ashley, controversial but correct call imho.
 
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