Well, I'm on uni holidays now but my journo lecturer wants me to keep writing, so i did this at about 8am this morning lol
My headline was "Resisting the temptation"..
Individually, a big part of the NSW side under-performed, and it would be easy for the coach Ricky Stuart and his selector Bob Fulton to pick out the worst of them and bring in a replacement. Brett Morris for instance, allowed the ball to bounce on his own line and let in a very soft try, so why not replace him with Jarryd Hayne? Michael Ennis dropped a ball in an attacking position out of dummy-half, a cardinal sin for any number 9, cant we drop him and bring in Robbie Farrah, Luke Lewis, or perhaps Kurt Kidley off the bench?
The reality is, despite these individuals not playing up to their usual standard, and regardless of whether there are more qualified suitors waiting in the wings, at 12-10 with 11 minutes to play, this NSW side appeared to have the game won. They had all the momentum and QLD looked on the ropes. 2 minutes later, Cameron Smith feeds the ball to Johnathan Thurston from acting-half, he flicks it on to Darren Lockyer, Lockyer plays a lovely inside ball to an on-running Billy Slater, and Slater goes through to score what, in the end, is the winning try. It went through the hands of Smith, Thurston, Lockyer, and Slater. They're the best players in our game. Enough said. NSW played fantastically well as a unit, and they nearly pulled it off. With a bit more experience under their belt, and a bit of luck, they almost certainly would have come away with the win.
All week we've heard that never before has there been a group of players that have come together so quickly as this NSW side has, and if they were to win, it would surely be on the back of that togetherness. Now, after battling to a lead off the back of some incredible defence, and then narrowly losing out by just 4 points, the public are calling for the team to be broken up, and to disregard the team spirit that was so evident in the lead up to game I.
Anyone that has ever played a team sport will understand the importance of trusting the people around you, and to replace anyone in the current squad now would undoubtedly create a sense of failure, heads would drop, confidence would take a hit, and QLD will happily run over the top of us in Sydney on the 15th of June.
It is imperative that Ricky Stuart resists the temptation to chop and change, and gives the incumbents an opportunity to learn from their mistakes in game I, and go out in game II and prove to us, and prove to themselves, that they can beat this champion QLD team.
My headline was "Resisting the temptation"..
Individually, a big part of the NSW side under-performed, and it would be easy for the coach Ricky Stuart and his selector Bob Fulton to pick out the worst of them and bring in a replacement. Brett Morris for instance, allowed the ball to bounce on his own line and let in a very soft try, so why not replace him with Jarryd Hayne? Michael Ennis dropped a ball in an attacking position out of dummy-half, a cardinal sin for any number 9, cant we drop him and bring in Robbie Farrah, Luke Lewis, or perhaps Kurt Kidley off the bench?
The reality is, despite these individuals not playing up to their usual standard, and regardless of whether there are more qualified suitors waiting in the wings, at 12-10 with 11 minutes to play, this NSW side appeared to have the game won. They had all the momentum and QLD looked on the ropes. 2 minutes later, Cameron Smith feeds the ball to Johnathan Thurston from acting-half, he flicks it on to Darren Lockyer, Lockyer plays a lovely inside ball to an on-running Billy Slater, and Slater goes through to score what, in the end, is the winning try. It went through the hands of Smith, Thurston, Lockyer, and Slater. They're the best players in our game. Enough said. NSW played fantastically well as a unit, and they nearly pulled it off. With a bit more experience under their belt, and a bit of luck, they almost certainly would have come away with the win.
All week we've heard that never before has there been a group of players that have come together so quickly as this NSW side has, and if they were to win, it would surely be on the back of that togetherness. Now, after battling to a lead off the back of some incredible defence, and then narrowly losing out by just 4 points, the public are calling for the team to be broken up, and to disregard the team spirit that was so evident in the lead up to game I.
Anyone that has ever played a team sport will understand the importance of trusting the people around you, and to replace anyone in the current squad now would undoubtedly create a sense of failure, heads would drop, confidence would take a hit, and QLD will happily run over the top of us in Sydney on the 15th of June.
It is imperative that Ricky Stuart resists the temptation to chop and change, and gives the incumbents an opportunity to learn from their mistakes in game I, and go out in game II and prove to us, and prove to themselves, that they can beat this champion QLD team.
