State Of Origin 2026

Carrigan will be named apparently. Nanai as well. No Collins is a shame but I'm happy we have 3 middles and a strike edge player on the bench. Walsh and Tualagi in the 19.

Big red is presumably named at 20 to cover Pat.

 

As for the Blues team, I think Tedesco is very lucky to still be there. Lot of Blues fans hoping this will be his last game. Bostock over To'o is a little strange. I mean for years we've talked about him being a liability to aerial raids but I'm not sure you can afford to lose your strongest ball runner in the backfield when your forwards have struggled all series.

Moses is there purely for long kicking, at this point. He doesn't run the ball, and he defended like Sandra Sully on the weekend. How he's been picked is beyond me. Still looks injured.

Barnett and AFB have been dogshit for a lot of this year. I don't know what Koloamatangi needs to do.
Martin starting is dumb. Murray not starting is dumber.

And Koula at 19 still makes zero sense when Edwards covers every outside back and is a straight swap at fullback.

 

I agree with you about Robson. In Origin he's offered nothing with the ball.

In the last 5 Origins combined Robson has:
0 line breaks, 0 line break assists and 0 try assists. Along with running 30m per game and missing 6 tackles in game 2 it's well below par.
You'd wanna have defence like the love child of Dallas Johnson and Trevor Gillmeister with attacking stats like that.

 

I agree. It's marginally better. Still think the spine lacks creativity. And Crichton/Cleary/Martin have to nullify Qld's left edge, or it's gonna be a long night for them.

 

Robson, I've noticed, is very good at taking advantage of disorganised markers. It doesn't happen as much in Origin and he doesn't seem very capable, certainly not as much as Api, of beating them with the pass or run when they're set. That's part of why I think he's struggled.

The other factor is just playing behind shit forward packs several games in a row now.

I would've dropped him. Just doesn't offer enough. Especially after Selwyn skittled him twice in the first half and sort of undermined the whole, we need his defence, attitude. He's a solid player though.

 

It's so peak Daley and peak NSW to drop the most damaging edge player in the game (not even a bench spot) for a rookie with 50 NRL matches, play him on the wrong side of the field, and then drop him.

It's one thing if these criticisms come after the matches, they carry less weight because hindsight is 20/20. But these concerns were expressed prior to a ball being kicked. And it just keeps happening over, and over, and over again. One NSW fan described going for this state as a chore, and I wouldn't blame him. Fittler and Daley have been so bush league. I honestly think if the Blues win it'll be in spite of Daley, not because of him.

 

Yeah To'o is not a short man, a hair under 6'. He's practically the same height as Jojo. They're both on the shorter side for modern wingers maybe but To'o is super solid which is deceiving.

And yeah Bostock is a stringbean. He's 4 inches taller than Brian but weighs the same. There's a chance he gets folded or dominated in some tackles.

 

I'll have to admit to being wrong about Mam over Walsh in the 19 re: Boobidy. Based on recent form I don't want Mam anywhere near the side. I do still think there's merit in having a "break the glass" half back-up because we really didn't look like doing much when Plath filled in for Munster. But if that's Slater's move, I much prefer it to moving Ponga to the halves so I'm okay with it.

Under no circumstance do I wanna see a Walker/Ponga/Walsh spine. It sounds great but it would be absolute error-ridden chaos.