NRL 2017
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holy shit that was awesome.
I wasn't confident heading in to last night. NSW looked so good for the first game and a half. I thought Qld had used all their "Queensland Spirit" coming back to win game two. No JT. A 3rd halves combination. A bunch of noobs everywhere. And the best NSW team i have seen in years, unchanged through 3 games. What the fuck do i know?
Qld forwards fly out of the gate, Cam Smith is running from dummy half, Billy Slater is playing his best game in years, Cronk is directing traffic, and all the noobs have to do is catch the ball. It should have been over by half time, but shit there were some butchered tries in that first half (Cam Smith's fuck up the worst, that was Jarryd Hayne-esque).
Then they bomb another one to start the 2nd half. And NSW score, and then up the pressure i thought that was it. But no, hello Cameron Munster. Fucking smashed them, and a whole new bunch of Blues have mental scars to overcome.
Really, how can i over-rate an Origin side with Mitchel Pearce in it?
For Qld, Napa and Wallace were huge, and will be the props for Qld for ages. Gillett was the best backrower in the game, and that's a big result given the names on the park. McGuire is really effective when he is on. Cronk and Munster are a great balance in the halves (helped out by Smith jumping in to first receiver). Chambers and Gagai threatened constantly. But the two best guys on the park were Smith and Slater. Big game players stepping up again to crush their old rivals. There will be a bunch of Blues players just praying they retire.
For the Blues, is Aaron Woods the most over-rated player in the game? He has had 15 good minutes in the series. Fifita was targeted, and so had zero impact. But they got nothing on attack out of their pack except some big charges by Frizell. Off the back of that their backs couldn't do shit, but Mitchell Pearce is a shit Origin player, and was at fault for a couple of tries, while offering fuck all on attack or in the kicking game.
11 in 12 years. Long may it continue
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Bit of a masterstroke going for Munster over some of the bigger names like DCE ,
Already plays with the rest of the spine so little readjustment needed , just more of the same shit they do every week
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@Stargazer yeah i read that a couple of days ago. The "All Star" game getting the same fate.
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I have no idea what Laurie Daley said in the sheds at halftime of Game 2 but NSW weren't the same afterwards.
This series should have been a canter for the Blues but they choked in the home straight against a so-so Queensland side (compared to previous years).
The fact that one Sydney journo compared Mitchell Pearce to Darren Lockyer at the start of the series is just foolish. -
I have no idea what Laurie Daley said in the sheds at halftime of Game 2 but NSW weren't the same afterwards.
This series should have been a canter for the Blues but they choked in the home straight against a so-so Queensland side (compared to previous years).
The fact that one Sydney journo compared Mitchell Pearce to Darren Lockyer at the start of the series is just foolish.@Sneakdefreak I'm just going to assume that was Rothfield?
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@Rancid-Schnitzel said in NRL 2017:
Thought Qld was screwed after game one, but NSW choke again.
Fark Billy Slater must be a midget. Half a head shorter than Lockyer who is pretty stunted.
It's almost as though they were resigned to losing the 3rd game after the massive choke in the 2nd where they were all over Qld. They were so flat during the 1st half.
@Rancid-Schnitzel said in NRL 2017:
Thought Qld was screwed after game one, but NSW choke again.
Fark Billy Slater must be a midget. Half a head shorter than Lockyer who is pretty stunted.
It's almost as though they were resigned to losing the 3rd game after the massive choke in the 2nd where they were all over Qld. They were so flat during the 1st half.
It's quite an incredible turnaround. After the first game everyone was talking about a new Blues dynasty and the mood in Qld was basically that the good times were over. I heard Kevi Walters on the radio and he sounded like a broken man. Smith also looked like he wanted to shoot himself after the first game.
As if it wasn't already hard enough being a cockroach...
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Being the true blue QueeNZlander that i am now I've been off work for 2 days coked up in a hotel room with curtains closed after getting in a victory fight with an Asian tourist wearing Aqua Blue(close enough). He may or may not have been a women. Could have been Asian Chris Jenner, who knows these days right?!
Such was emphatic nature of that historic win I actually drained my balls when i saw Langer take that catch out wide. The euphoric tension had been building and building and seeing that nuggety little fluffybunny take that ball and then o'face like he did, i just couldn't hold it in any longer.
The best parts of the game were when Woods magically appeared from under his invisibility cloak to get bumped off in the last 5 min of the game. Fafita's slimey "oh gummon mate' smile at Munster after dropping a cheap shot on him to no effect. And when Queensland legend JT had quite clearly taken a line or two off Kevin Walters bum crack, in the coaches box, once the result was beyond doubt.
For a homeless street kid they found approximately 5min before kick off, out the front of the Caxton scabbing durries, Munster did bloody well. True QLD spirit that. We love a battler.
In closing, seriously, If I see any of you
aussie based kiwis rocking a bumper sticker that says QueeNZlander I will choke you out. -
What a way to see off Manu Vatuvei tonight - SJ gets injured, the Cleary curse evolves and the playoff chances have unofficially ended. Panthers win 34-22.
Some thoughts:
- Intensity. That's what this club lacks most. In a game where the players have a secondary reason to win (for another teammate no less) they find a way to lose to a team they should beat. Stats were pretty much even, just they lacked intensity when it mattered.
- Also they lack the ability to adapt. When SJ got injured you knew they wouldn't be able to change their gameplan. And they didn't.
- No excuses but the reffing in this game was horrific. Offsides appear to not count anymore. Gavin Reynolds and Alan Shortfull suck donkey-balls as refs.
- But teams know the Warriors are super-slow at the play-the-ball so risk being offside to stop any momentum.
- This problem can be easily solved by adding more dummy-half running to their game plan but the coaches don't. Sheesh.
- The Cleary curse. That's what this streak of no playoffs is and now it's moved onto the next generation in budding superstar Nathan Cleary.
- If Ivan had remained coach, Nathan would be playing for the Warriors....
- Warriors can't make the top 8 now, in fact it will be Storm, Sharks, Roosters, Manly, Broncos, Cowboys, Dragons, Eels.
- Sad to see the Beast leave in such a way but more moves like this are needed if the club wants to change the "bro culture" in the club.
- I found a centre tonight who plays dumber footy than Kata. Waqa Blake.
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What happened? We make a great comeback from 18-12 down to go up 22-18.
Then SJ goes off hurt and then we barely fire another shot.
Agree @Sneakdefreak we lack intensity and accuracy. We have these moments of 4-5 minutes that things go okay, but then the lapses come and teams punish us.
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@Sneakdefreak is it like Parra where in club politics are fucking us up? Does Kearney have control or do the players? Is really just a very average coach?
I feel like its poor coach and shit house club culture.
@raznomore Nothing like Parramatta. I have no real idea how to fix the problem. If I could solve the Warriors, I could probably solve poverty, terrorism, and all other world problems.
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losing cultures are a complex thing to turn around , there are clubs in every code with the same issues asking the same questions
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@raznomore Nothing like Parramatta. I have no real idea how to fix the problem. If I could solve the Warriors, I could probably solve poverty, terrorism, and all other world problems.
@Sneakdefreak said in NRL 2017:
@raznomore Nothing like Parramatta. I have no real idea how to fix the problem. If I could solve the Warriors, I could probably solve poverty, terrorism, and all other world problems.
I thought Doyle's arrival would be the first step to turning us around but it isn't happening
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SJ goooone for the rest of the year, done his ACL
Watch the rest of the Warriors season completely implode. -
I went to a talk on leadership by Paul Blackwell recently, the owner of the Breakers. He said when he took over they were absolutely rotten to the core. There was no accountability from the top down, and the coach was essentially bullied by both the players and the management. He had to do a massive clean-out from the top down and rebuild from scratch to create the right environment and culture.
I suspect the Blues and Warriors both have similar issues to what he described, which is why coach after coach gets effectively the same results.
In the Q&A afterwards an obviously long suffering Warriors fan was pleading with him to take over the club after leaving the Breakers.
Also, for any Breakers or NBL fans interested he said Tony Ronaldson (aka The Bear) was absolutely instrumental in getting the culture and professionalism right, that they couldn't have done it without him and he was sad that they were never able to win a title when he was with the team.
