Slater's try was so soft. Three Sharks players all at fault. Barrett races up and staggers the line. Gallen over-reads. Snowden gets across but both he and Gallen, arm grab. To produce that on your own line when leading by 5 with 7 minutes to go...just terrible. <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XPoMBdrgIGY&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XPoMBdrgIGY&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
Lol. It was ****ing awesome. Who doesn't? Find me one sane person who wouldn't take 14inches of Lockyer down their gullet. I raged so hard at that one. How the **** has Hayne proven himself in Origin? Yeah, definitely no need to play game 4.
I think Barrett is most at fault, had no business coming up like that. Snowden and Gallen got in each others way a little bit, probably looked at each other rather than the player with the ball, meaning neither of them fully committed to the tackle. A very soft try really.
And Snowden and Gallen had no business missing that tackle when both of them had a great shot at him. Barrett didn't miss the tackle. I think he's least at fault of the three.
Do we think Kimmorley and Barrett will be considered next year? I mean knowing the NSWRL's propensity for picking based on form, I'd say, absolutely. Personally, I don't think Kimmorley has it in him any more and frankly, the incongruity of using Pearce's youth as a rationale whilst still picking the 32 year old Barrett as his partner, is laughable.
Don't think Kimmorley is a chance, unless Pearce is injured. Him and Pearce are pretty much the same player at Origin level anyway, and either one would go OK, as long as they had some creative and dominant players around them (Farah, Carney, whoever the **** else)
Just re-watching Game 3 again, the difference in prop interchanges between states is quite interesting. 18th minute - King comes off for TLL. 21st minute - Snowden comes off for Watmough. 25th minute - Civoniceva is replaced by Shillington. 25th minute - Scott is replaced by Taylor. 48th minute - Scott and Civoniceva return for their second spell with Shillington and Taylor returning back to the bench. 50th minute - Mannah comes on for Lewis. 52nd minute - King returns for his second spell with TLL going off. 59th minute - Gallen comes off for Ennis. 61st minute - Snowden finally gets back for his second stint with Mannah off (Why he only got 11 minutes is beyond me). 65th minute - TLL returns for King. 70th minute - Gallen returns for Watmough. 71st minute - Thaiday and Shillington replace Civoniceva and Scott. 75th minute - Watmough comes back on for TLL. Snowden ended up playing 40 minutes and King, 31 (Stats say 35 but I've checked three times - He only played 31). TLL played 43, Watmough 54, and Mannah 11. Civoniceva and Scott both played 48 minutes. Now 8 minutes may not seem like much (17 certainly is; it's nearly a quarter of a match ffs) but I would emphasise the times above. If they're there to create the platform, on which the rest of the attack depends, it's no good not having them out there to do it when the game is in the balance and forward domination is yet to be decided. QLD's starting props stayed out there for longer in the first stint, came back on earlier for the second, and compared to King, stayed on for longer again. Frankly, I think QLD have the better interchange and rotation policies. Nobody can blame NSW for not having the quality prop stocks that QLD do but surely if you're going to match them, you either need to pick more of them, or make the ones you do pick, play just as many minutes, if not more. until they get this right, success will be very limited IMO. Giving Mannah only 11 minutes is downright absurd, especially given how many metres he was making.
It's no surprise that the QLD starting forwards stayed on longer then NSW's in the first stint seeing we were defending for 80% of it.
You still don't want to be changing your side too much, nothing worse than constant reshuffles and defending next too a different bloke every 10 minutes.
