Sorry only just thought to check here for a match thread. Good game for NSW, we bloody needed one! Great game from Crighton, To'o and Best, Teddy with a nice break to set up a try, and JAC (Bulldogs Legend) having a solid game with a beautiful chip and chase try
I think he needs to be there, he can be so amazing - but god damn his defence can be abysmal. It's funny because his covering defence is elite tier, almost best in the comp. The number of times he makes a last ditch tackle or cleans up a kick that was almost certain to be a try is insane, but when he's set and in the defensive line he can be a turnstyle.
He made 33 tackles over the series which basically makes him the worst defender of the entire team (excluding interchange players and Taulagi who somehow got away with almost zero tackles - presumably the blues just never ran at him).
My boy Ruben managed 120 tackles. Wow.
Really damning though Holmes had 14 missed tackles. He somehow managed the least completed tackles and the most missed tackles. Ruben missed 6 tackles.
We lost Game 3 on defence, and he was the worst defender. I stand my hope that he doesn't come back next year.
Wtf is that garbage? We got a penalty, which then turned into a knock on, which we challenged, and which shows that it was knocked out by a head…..and nsw gets the ball? Jesus Christ.
You can blame the commentary team for that. Channel 9 shouldn't be allowed to telecast the great game.
I'm a QLD supporter by the way... for me it was a clear loose carry and it touched a defending player which means it's a knock on no matter what direction the ball goes. The commentators absolutely know it was a knock on. They were just stirring the pot - probably deliberately.
The attacking player is required to maintain position in the tackle and it's only "knocked out" by the defending player if they play at the ball with their hands.
Yeh good point. Glad we got toweled up in a dead rubber and not a live game.
Slater royally fucked up the bench rotation this game. Tino only had 28 mins up until about the 65th minute when he returned with us 14 points down.
Fifita, our most dangerous forward and one of the biggest weapons in the team, only had 22 mins up until he came back on with about 8 to go.
Carrigan was missing for most of the game defining minutes, only got 57 thanks to a late stint when it was over.
Slater needs to fix that. Players like cotter and nanai getting 80 while those other players ride the bench is a joke.
Harry Grant needs a rocket up his arse. He was dreadful apart from an attacking flourish here and there. Munster got almost no ball, same with Hammer.
Oh well, as you say hopefully it’s a lesson learned. We really need to improve after only barely scraping a series win that in all reality we shouldn’t have after that game 1 miracle.
NSW seriously need to think about keeping this halves combination. Cleary just seems to be another player that can’t step up to another level at origin, and Luai is a flat track bully who is only any good when Cleary is dominating in a club game.