State Of Origin
Update: Kurt Gidley will miss the entire State Of Origin series. He has been replayed by Josh Reynolds for game one. New South Wales has named its team for Game 1 of the 2013 State Of Origin series. This is the first team named by new NSW coach Laurie Daley as the Blues stare down…
Since being fined and having his contract almost torn up a few weeks ago, Blake Ferguson has come back into the Canberra Raiders side and been in some decent form. One the weekend Ferguson tore the Newcastle Knights apart in a display that saw him dominate the entire outcome of the game. Ferguson broke the…
With the City vs Country game now behind us we all turn our attention to the State Of Origin series. New South Wales has lost 7 series in a row. Despite talk of building a winning team we still come into the State Of Origin series with a lot of big questions hanging over the…
Not too long ago there was a time where Queensland were considered to be selecting players from a much smaller player pool than New South Wales had at their disposal. Back before Queensland decided to turn its back on born and bred Queenslanders and started selecting players from Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Fiji, Northern…
Thanks to funding from the New South Wales government, Sydney will host two games in next years State Of Origin series with Brisbane hosting the other match. Over the last few years the NRL has been pushing for more funding to host these games. Ironically it was Victoria’s willingness to pay to host matches that…
With Ricky Stuart making the decision that he would stand down from his post as New South Wales coach we have seen a lot of maneuvering among potential replacements over the last few days. Brad Fittler, Laurie Daley and Trent Barrett have all be mentioned at the top of everyone’s list of candidates along with…
Queensland has wrapped up its 7th straight State Of Origin series with a thrilling 21-20 win at Lang Park. A field goal from 45 meters out by Cooper Cronk ended up being all that separated the two sides in a win that see’s Fijian born Petero Civoniceva retire as the most capped forward in Origin…
In front of over 83,000 screaming New South Wales supporters the Blues have defeated the Maroons 16-12 to level up the State Of Origin series 1-1. It was an unsettled start to the game with both sides looking nervous. New South Wales settled first through and early on had the best of the chances, although…
We are heading into a must win, possibly series deciding game two of the State Of Origin series, and you know what the big talking point is? Whinging. Both Mal Meninga and Ricky Stuart have carried on like a couple of fucking idiots. Neither one is better than the other. Between the planet sized chip…
Game one of the 2012 State Of Origin series was a very interesting game for a number of reasons. I personally didn’t think it was the highest quality game, I think neither side played at their best, but both probably learned a lot from that first game and I think both teams will be thinking…
Game one of the 2012 State Of Origin series was a very interesting game for a number of reasons. I personally didn’t think it was the highest quality game, I think neither side played at their best, but both probably learned a lot from that first game and I think both teams will be thinking…
Is it unreasonable to suggest that the biggest domestic sporting event in Australia would generate enough money to see the participants in that contest earning $50,000 each? No, not really? That is the situation we face right now with the State Of Origin series. The Rugby League Players Association is pushing for a pay increase…
The Queensland Rugby League has announced the Maroons side for game one of the State Of Origin series and there were basically no surprises what so ever. The Queenslanders have a big production around the announcement of their side and its pretty funny if only for the fact that you have so many journo’s who…
The NSWRL has announced the Blues State Of Origin side for game one and I have to say, its a lineup I really like and one that looks like its been selected to attack the Maroons and really go after a win rather than trying to defend its way to a series. When you have…
When you get to representative level, the players you assemble are the best of the best. Bigger, faster, stronger, more skillful and with more endurance. It is that last asset that I think is seeing the bench rotation at representative level evolve into something different than what we have become accustomed to seeing over the…
Queensland’s winning run at State Of Origin level burns away at me every single day. When I watch games I rate the form of possible Origin players, as well as the Queenslanders. I think that New South Wales are in a much better position than they were say two years ago. Now we know who…
It is a series in which every single game rates as highly on TV as the Grand Final. I would argue that State Of Origin is the most identifiable product that the game has Australia wide. Recent speculation suggest that any television station that wants to broadcast the three game State Of Origin series will…
For the majority of the history of Australian Rugby League, New South Wales versus Queensland representative matches were a test of the relative current player pool in those two states. If you were an Australian living in New South Wales, you played for the Blues. If you lived in Queensland, you played for the Maroons….
Think of this as a conspiracy theory that has a lot of pieces that fit very neatly into place… I wrote yesterday about Mal Meninga’s Ignorant Rant against everyone and everything from New South Wales. His article titled Queensland’s triumph a victory over the dirty rats of Origin was full of venom, and its got him in a lot…
You have to wonder what planet Mal Meninga is living on. Fresh off of winning a record sixth straight State Of Origin series at Queensland coach, Meninga went on a bizarre rant in his newspaper column titled Queensland’s triumph a victory over the dirty rats of Origin It was nothing short of a tirade directed at…
Queensland has wrapped up its 6th straight State Of Origin series win with a 34-24 win over New South Wales. Lets face it, the scoreline flattered New South Wales. I’ve never seen an opening half an hour to any Origin match like the one I saw in this game. Things just went Queenslands way. The…
The second game of the 2011 State Of Origin series will be a game that I remember for a very long time. It is everything I love about sport. Witnessing a champion side face off against a team full of desire. An amazing contest. Reaching that point in the game when, both teams had proven…
We have passion! We’ve got the passion! Its about emotion! I’m passionate and emotional! The greatest sporting performances I have seen in my lifetime all come from cold, emotionless performances in which there was no wasted energy on emotion until the contest was well and truly over. I tend to think the New South Wales…
As Queensland crossed for their first try of the opening State Of Origin game after just five minutes, it was easy to worry that New South Wales were going to be on the wrong end of a big scoreline. Considering that for the next 20 minutes of the match, Queensland dominated possession and field position,…
I’ve waited to write this article until both New South Wales and Queensland had announced their State Of Origin lineups. I think its funny that we still see NSW selecting their team ahead of QLD. I guess it comes back to the fact that the administrators of our game have been just about non existent…
Well, we’ve had City vs Country and a lot of club games to gauge the form of a potential New South Wales State Of origin lineup…so now…its time. I think it is fair to say the the lineup we thought we would see at the season of the season is very different from the lineup…
Well the predictions of doom and gloom over the crowd figure were off the mark but the predictions of a Queensland clean sweep were spot on. While New South Wales seemed to put up more of a fight, the fact is Queensland were not at their rampaging best and STILL managed to come away with…
Talk is that the crowd for State Of Origin number 3 in Sydney on Wednesday night will struggle to get a big crowd. Ticket sales have supposedly been slow, people are selling tickets on EBay for cheap, and while they are talking about a crowd of 50-60,000, I’m tipping more along the likes of 40,000….
You are probably wondering why I have not listed the Queensland and New South Wales sides heading into State Of Origin three. The reason is, it doesn’t really matter who was named. Queensland have named a very strong side, they have dropped Ben Hannant for Petero Civoniceva. They looked great. New South Wales on the…
The Queensland Rugby League team has completely dominated New South Wales in game two of the State Of Origin series, running away with a 34-6 victory. The win gives Queensland a record five series wins in a row, and makes Mal Meninga the most successful coach in State Of Origin history. To say this was…