My seat for origin 1 at ANZ stadium 26/5/2010
- The weather actually ended up helping Queensland - it rained for almost all of Wednesday, but stopped 20 minutes before kick-off. This suited Queensland, who have a team much more suited to dry conditions. They played fairly conservatively for the 1st 15 minutes, realised it wasn't that wet & played how they wanted. However, NSW didn't have that option as they had a team that was very powerful but not able to play with as much freedom as Qld was able to (until the last 12 minutes when the game was as good as over).
- Qld's playmakers (Lockyer, Thurston, Cronk, Slater) gave the maroons many more options in attack & also lead to better support play. NSW played a much more one-out style game-plan, which was not able to break the Qld defence. Kimmorley seemed to be running the team himself, which allowed Queensland the mark up accordingly.
- This loss for NSW, in what seemed like an ideal situation, asks a lot of the blues selectors. Do they move Gidley to 5/8 & Hayne to fullback to give Hayne the freedom to do what he wants? Do they keep the same bench that had 3 utility players, none of which made much of an impact? Do they bring back Gallen to add some much needed mongrel?
- In the end Queensland seem to be once again in complete control and NSW will need a minor miracle, to not lose series when game 2 is played in Brisbane in mid-June.
- Socceroos arrive in South Africa, after only just beating NZ on Monday in Melbourne. Not much should be taken out of the result, as both teams have been flogged in training in the lead-up, 6 certain starters where missing from the line-up. Also none of the teams we will play, play a style in any way resembling what NZ showed. In short, NZ wanted to attack even less than we did, thus made it hard for Australia to play on the counter. A much better test for the team will be the games against USA and Denmark in Joburg in the next week.
- The Super 14 final will be between the Joburg Bulls and the Cape Town Stormers in South Africa this weekend. The Bulls beat the Canterbury Crusaders and the Stormers beat the NSW Waratahs. The final should be a tough clash between teams who play very contrasting styles. My tip is the Bulls by 14 points.
Why did white only play 15 mins and why cant we have some decent forwards like friday and petrol? michael wheywoman and porterhouse did a rubbish job of moving forward and that was left to watmough ennis etc. Noddy had a great game but was always under pressure cos our forwards were not pushing forward enough.
ReplyDeleteDraddy can we please have your highly respected predictions for World Cup eg final four, eventual winner etc. There are many readers eagerly awaiting your learned words re World Cup.
ReplyDeleteWhat blog update frequency can we expect during the trip?
I will join the chorus of voices literally screaming "Where can I buy my Draddysport T-shirt!?"
ReplyDeleteI need to wear it with pride, showing the world where I draw my detailed sporting information from. I need to announce why I can spout sports predictions like a modern day Nostradamus. A shirt will help with this.