State Of Origin 2025

One of the most pleasing things about the performance was the fact that we didnt have a single bad player. Not one man who you'd say yeah he was poor. You can find 6 or 7 in the Blues side, but to a man, every Qld player was a pass mark or better.

 

Always been curious to see how the dynasty players measured up against the previous generations in terms of creating points and opportunities. The last few months I've been watching every Origin since 1980. This is based only on games played as a halfback or five-eighth.

Thurston
27 - Try Assists
5 - Tries
8 - Linebreaks
15 - Linebreak Assists
55 - Total

Lewis
15 - TA
7 - T
9 - LB
13 - LBA
44 - Total

Langer
13 - TA
10 - T
10 - LB
5 - LBA
38 - Total

Johns
13 - TA
3 - T
10 - LB
7 - LBA
33 - Total

Fittler
10 - TA
7 - T
4 - LB
4 - LBA
25 - Total

Lockyer
12 - TA
3 - T
3 - LB
4 - LBA
22 - Total

Daley
3 - TA
5 - T
4 - LB
8 - LBA
20 - Total

Kenny
7 - TA
2 - T
5 - LB
5 - LBA
19 - Total

Cronk
7 - TA
3 - T
4 - LB
2 - LBA
16 - Total

Lam
2 - TA
4 - T
2 - LB
5 - LBA
13 - Total

Murray
4 - TA
1 - T
2 - LB
5 - LBA
12 - Total

Barrett
4 - TA
3 - T
1 - LB
4 - LBA
12 - Total

Stuart
3 - TA
3 - T
2 - LB
2 - LBA
10 - Total

Sterling
2 - TA
0 - T
1 - LB
4 - LBA
7 - Total

Up to the 2018 series, so i'll be interested to see whwre Munster, DCE, Maloney and Cleary rank.

 

I find it amazing how high up Lockyer is, having spent the first 7 years of his Origin career playing fullback.

Thurston with 27 try assists will probably never be broken, or not for a very long time.

 

Yeah I have those stats too, I just havent sorta processed them for all the players listed yet as I'm only interested in games played in the halves. A lot of people talk about Johns playing hooker through the 90's at rep level but thats just not true, or rather it's only true for international footy but not Origin. 96, 97 he wore the NSW no.9 but when you watch the matches he's clearly playing halfback and Toovey is hooker. No question of that. He played a quasi-hooker role off the bench in 2000 for 2 games but that's it.
Johns 21 games at half, 33 contributions = 1.57 per game.
Thurston is 1.48.

Brett Kenny is at 1.58. Mind you, the longer you play the harder it is to maintain such a high average and Kenny only played 12 matches at five-eighth so the longevity isnt really there.

**correction Fittler is highest at 1.78, but again, he only played 14 matches at 6. The other 17 were at lock or centre.

 

If you were to categorise every single touch a player ever had as positive, neutral and negative there's no doubt in my mind Johns is the best half, club and rep footy combined. His bad touches were very rare, hardly ever got tackled unless he deliberately chose to run, and most touches were constructive. Wally would be just behind in second.

Thurston, Langer, Lockyer and co had a lot more negative touches despite being in and around that immortal echelon.

Speaking of which, I know Alfie was a poor defender but fuck me he needs to be the conversation for immortalisation more. He didnt invent the grubber but he showed its value with so many tries and repeat sets. The amount of halves who started using it as the primary option after 1987 when Alf showed up is very noticeable watching the matches through the years. Totally outplayed Johns, Daley and Fittler in 98, part of 99 and probably 01, 02 as well. Thats after having outplayed Sterling, Stuart and Hasler 10 years prior. Not too many halves go up against that sort of quality their whole career. He was an absolute midget magician.