STATE OF ORIGIN...

Here we are 3 weeks out and holding my breath at the NSW selectors:
No secret we ballsed it up at the selection table for last 3 years.. selectors are gooone and we have sticky as our main man.. who do they go for and where do they put them?

Sticky has gone public with 3 certainties... Bird, Gallen and Gidley.. would expect Bird to slot into second row with Gallen at lock and Gids on the bench. No Lewis this year and that hurts.
Other blokes that are walk ins are Weyman at prop, Gasnier at centre Gordon on the wing and Hayne...There have been reports that they want Hayne at 5/8 to ensure he gets quality touches and to squeeze Dugan into the run on team... outside of Hayne we are looking at Mullen, Soward, Sutton or Anasta... hardly inspiring at the moment. Gus reckons Pearce isnt ready but i reckon he is just goading junior junior into playing smarter footy...Mullen is playing the better footy from halfback at the moment and would hope they pick em on club form this time.
1. Hayne
2. Gordon
3. Gasnier
4. Morris
5. Uate
6. Mullen
7. Pearce
8. Weyman
9. Farah (dodgy groin reports dont help him or he would be a shoo in)
10. Snowden
11. Bird
12. Creagh
13. Gallen (c)
Bench: Houston, Gidley, Soward, Learoyd Lahrs
I reckon this would be close to the mark as sticky sees it at the moment.

hope they dont field that side mate or we are gone !!!!!!Gallen ,Gasnier & Hayne pick themselves & maybe creagh ,i still cant work out why hindmarsh & heighington arent cemented in the side ..these two are musts IMO !!! .... its pretty simple .. pick in form players !!!!!!! ....nsw have to start again ...blokes i wouldnt touch are pearce,gidley,morris brothers,weyman & waterhouse.......blokes i would consider.......tolman,mannah,felete mateo,glen stewart,galloway,snowden ,douglas & idris and why not give young hopoate an opportunity
overall if nsw keep picking the same core that hasnt got the job done the last 5 years its all over before it starts

dont know what weyman has done wrong.. i reckon he is excellent netl?? Same goes for the morriss boys... they are capable of splitting a game wide open and defend very well. I agree re: hindmarsh but im sure his ticket has been stamped to never play origin again, still we can hope! That side i put up there has 10 that didnt play last year series... Its funny isnt it, last year we had form players everywhere in Carney, Sutton, Pearce, Soward and from memory a bunch of others and they went for a retirement village team with Kimmorley and Barrett amongst others LMFAO!!
This year that group who were running hot have gone AWOL and now we have a selection dilemna... it seems like we are still paying for last years selectors mistakes this year. How good could some of those blokes been if they had a taste of origin for a series?? Now we still dont know if Soward can step up...if Pearce can be consistent over a series, if Sutton can find his best in the spotlight of Origin, if Farah is the dynamic hooker we needed to split the Qlders down the guts etc etc... still a lot of unanswered questions hanging around.
I think you are right... after the two matchups of IDRIS v INGLIS this season you would think he has a mortgage to take on INGLIS in Origin.

Weyman is a walking injury. Canberra couldn't get rid of him fast enough on that count. His knees have been ratshit for years, and he complains long and loud when things flare up with him. Good player, but a liability if you're relying on blokes to play extended periods of time in a game, not to mention a series.

Mateo? No way....Same goes for Sutton...Need players who are mentally tough. Those 2 don't fit the criteria! I hate to say it, but they give Soward a go. Has been consistent for the Dragons for a long time.

Gallen is a liability too.. How many brain dead penalties does he give away. He can be good and tough but seriously lacks discipline and brains.

Gallen has singlehandedly lost at least one Origin game due to penalties he gave away trying to be the enforcer. Hopefully he has matured in that area. If he has, he'll be a massive asset. He would fill the newbies around him with confidence, which would be greatly needed.

He certainly has some mongrel in him which is needed...needs to use it properly. Hindy's days in the blues jumper are over. I love the guy but he is a tackler only these days (a great one at that!) Hasn't offered much in attack for about 5 years! Be great to see him and Ennis in the same side tho. Someone might call "Cattle Dog" and Hindy would put Ennis on his ar$e!

lol i would pay good money to see Hindy square up against Ennis in the ring!! Personally i would love to see Hindy back in the blue but i reckon the biggest mistake we have made over the last 3 years in particular is to focus on how to contain the QLDERS rather than fight flair with fire. It was embarrassingly obvious when they picked beau scott at centre. The selectors ran scared and the minute we put an offensive team on them we got the choccys.
Gallen has improved his discipline out of sight this year ive noticed... i agree with yas he has lost us some games when he lost his head and i was NEVER a fan of his... he looks good this year though!!
Gallen and Hindy together would just about count for 150 tackles and we can focus on attack with some wide running forwards. Sutton around State of Origin time last year was in scintillating form as was Soward yet they never got a look at... getting overlooked for rep duties doesnt do a lot for your confidence when you are playing out of your skin and NSW failure to pick form players was diabolical and i shudder to think how many in form players have dropped off the radar when it was their time to shine. Personally i thought Sandow and Sutton would have ripped them to bits the way they were playing at that time.
Learoooooooyd keeps getting sleected and he keeps dropping the ball!! One of my pet hate selections!!

sorry about that my enthusiasm got the better of me.. before the bunny bashers drop out of the woodworks i meant Soward and Sutton not Sandow LOL... CMORN BUNNIES!!!!

weyman over rated for mine chilli!!!he has lots of mongrel and that is his strength but his ability is second rate compared to a few of the blokes running around...tolman.mannah,snowden & galaway all in form and IMO all should be on the verge
morris brothers no mongrel and someone like tallis would probably of made them have nightmares at night ,so for them never for mine !!!
hindmarsh should be first picked and captain IMO we should be building a side around him although it should have been 5 years ago we did this

unfortunately!!! we probably haved missed the boat there

its funny the selectors got to keep their jobs but players like hindmarsh who put in topshelf performances week in week out were let go !!!! .....what a frggin joke

we need to start by letting pearce go and also gidley then we might be able to build a winning culture.i would like to see hopoate have a go and soward i reckon deserves a shot

all i know is nsw have a big mess to fix up & there is some overated blokes who have to go !!!!!

hopefully QLD pick yow yeh he has butter fingers,MASSIVE OVERATED FOR MINE!!!!!

I'm hearing what many of you guys are saying. This is roughly the team I'd pick and it's based on two things...
(1) NSW have to build a squad. So they should go for youth. We are where QLD were 5-10 years ago - trying to pick a team to win the next game. We're stronger than QLD were 5-10 years ago because SOO won't end on the back of another loss. The junior ranks in NSW are stronger than ever and continue to grow due to the nature of Sydney's population. The trouble is getting them to play for NSW instead of NZ etc and holding off the recruiting raids of the Storm, Broncos, Cows, Titans, etc......But picking and dropping blokes after 1-2 games shows that NSW just don't know who the best players are. QLD have been there and picked O'Neil and Wagon at 5/8..... We have been picking those that have failed before ie Anasta, Kimmorley etc.
(2) Pick some exciting players. Blokes that can win a game by themself. If QLD are red hot and hard to beat, well lets at least try to beat them ie score some points! The best form of defence is attack!!!

1 Dugan....skill, speed
2 Hayne.....power, skill, speed, kicking, tryscorer
3 Idris....power, speed, skill, trscorer
4 Jennings/Gasnier....skill, speed, tryscorer
5 Uate....power, speed, tryscorer
6 Mullen/Gidley.... organisation, kicking, tenacity
7 Mullen/Pearce....skill, organisation, kicking, tenacity
8 Weyman....workhorse, mongrel
9 Farah.....weapon if fit?, kicking
10 Snowden......mongrel, weapon
11 Watmough....mongrel, attacking weapon, tryscorer
12 Gallen....mongrel, workhorse
13 Bird....mongrel, some skill
*****14 Gidley/ Lewis/ Prop ******
15 Creagh...workhorse, tryscorer
16 Mannah...workhorse
17 Douglas/Tolman...workhorse

***** tricky because Gidley definately plays and likely starts at 5/8 with Mullen or Pearce missing out. Lewis may not be fit. So if Lewis isn't fit I'd pick an extra prop which would be Tolman/Douglas.
I'm leaning towards attack which is why I'd like Lewis and Creagh on my bench with only two props. I know it sound like football suicide.

Watmough has never produced at origin level whiz.. One of our biggest mistakes was to pick hayne out of position and Lewis won't be fit.... Outside of that no arguments except maybe I thought you would go for Gordon... That kid is electric and fits your youth policy!!

It doesn't matter what side you New South Welshmen pick, us Maroons have got you covered!!! The Aussie side will have 10/11 qld players...that shows how dominant they are and with the likes of Lockyer, Hodges, Thaiday and Slater all in superb form...$1.45 to win the series is generous...3-0 for me

yeah it was all looking so good for next year Nudgey with Carney and Pearce playing out fo their skin and Farah back to his best... Not looking so good now mate.

Is anyone going to Origin 1 in Melb? Gunna take the Thursday off work. Can't wait!