NSW Blues

Oz Sport Mad wrote:that deadset superstar Hodkinson did somehow manage to hold the ball and stumble through a gap that George Rose could have....

we talking about hodkinson or boyd ?

pearce not putting his hand up for selection


whatever you think about pearce, i think its the right call for him to put playing for his club first, if he wasn't suspended for the first 8 rounds, i have no doubt the chooks have atleast 4-5 wins right V's the 2 they have (dragons and manly games stand out as games they would have won with him). origin is around the corner, if he ended up getting pulled away from his club for origin, it could kill any hope they have.



moving forward, i think maloney is locked in, who plays next to him is a lottery, i'd expect daley to go hodko

Personally I think any player who retired from rep football should also be ineligible for club games they would have otherwise played.

Dip wrote:Personally I think any player who retired from rep football should also be ineligible for club games they would have otherwise played.

i think that ridiculous, representative footy is not a requirement of your NRL contract


JT said he is gonna play the last year of his career just for the cowboys and retire from rep footy, you're suggesting he should miss any of the cowboys pre origin games ?

Hodgko played in a NSW winning series, nobody can take that away from him, but I've no doubt we win that series if he wasn't there anyway and the reality is his form is nothing like what it was back then and he doesn't have this "Club Combo" garbage to fall back on. He shouldn't be there for NSW and regardless of Pearce's losses at Origin, he is a superior Club Half, no doubt about it.

Anyway, it seems a pointless discussion now if Pearce has pulled the pin.

The game won't be won in the halves if NSW are to win anyway. We can throw 100 names up, and they will all fall short of the Qld halves by some margin.

Ice wrote:

The game won't be won in the halves if NSW are to win anyway.  We can throw 100 names up, and they will all fall short of the Qld halves by some margin.

this is the harsh reality


what i like about hodko is he'll stick to game plan, defend well and keep his cool, basically won't lose us the game but he won't win it either, none of our halves will



our chances of winning probably come down to defending as well as we did in first 2 2014 games and obviously we need our pack to win the battle up front, honestly daley can pick any of maloney, hodko, jrey, arey, austin, townsend, sezar, bird etc and i won't feel any better or worse about our chances

leaguegod wrote:

i think that ridiculous, representative footy is not a requirement of your NRL contract


JT said he is gonna play the last year of his career just for the cowboys and retire from rep footy, you're suggesting he should miss any of the cowboys pre origin games ?

That's exactly what I'm suggesting. I have no problem with players retiring from rep footy, but I think it should be done to protect rep footy from the pressure of clubs (not really a problem now since origin is so big, but if they're doing it for their workload then what point is there if they are playing a game anyway). Already this weekend there are 61 players unavailable for rep footy, and only 9 of those aren't expected back for next round. Sure some of those are genuine, but if it were a club round well over half of them would be playing.

I also think that clubs can get an unfair salary cap advantage by exerting pressure on players not to play origin. Lets take the hypothetical example of 2 identical players who are both say $700K players. Lets use James Moloney and Mitchell Pearce as close examples (or Hodges and Lyon in the past). Why should Cronulla be penalised for allowing their player to play rep football compared to the Roosters?

I disagree completely.

If you're not in the right frame of mind and your body can't stand up to playing Origin why should you be forced into retirement because of that? The only problem I have is players being pulled out by their clubs that want to play.

Dip wrote:

That's exactly what I'm suggesting. I have no problem with players retiring from rep footy, but I think it should be done to protect rep footy from the pressure of clubs (not really a problem now since origin is so big, but if they're doing it for their workload then what point is there if they are playing a game anyway). Already this weekend there are 61 players unavailable for rep footy, and only 9 of those aren't expected back for next round. Sure some of those are genuine, but if it were a club round well over half of them would be playing.

I also think that clubs can get an unfair salary cap advantage by exerting pressure on players not to play origin. Lets take the hypothetical example of 2 identical players who are both say $700K players. Lets use James Moloney and Mitchell Pearce as close examples (or Hodges and Lyon in the past). Why should Cronulla be penalised for allowing their player to play rep football compared to the Roosters?

steve matai chooses not to play for NZ because he doesn't want to consistently go on on camp and miss time with his family, thats a choice he or any origin player should have every right to make without having to miss a club game.


i could probably get on board a miss the next club game if a player misses a rep game through injury unless permanently retired from rep footy

leaguegod wrote:

steve matai chooses not to play for NZ because he doesn't want to consistently go on on camp and miss time with his family, thats a choice he or any origin player should have every right to make without having to miss a club game.


i could probably get on board a miss the next club game if a player misses a rep game through injury unless permanently retired from rep footy

I don't mind this with regards to stamping out sandbagging.... but is it right to scratch a player that's borderline keen to play, but gets ruled out? Then 4 days later he's good to play for his club? Conversely, it's not hard to fake a limp, then stage a miracle recovery, so it's practically impossible to police.

Then I mentally moved on to "what about compensating clubs with rep players with salary cap concessions?", but how does that work? $30k a game for (for eg) JT?, and are the Cowboys really going to get value out of that?

I think the only logical solution is to consider it an honour to play for your state or country, and bag the living shit out of players who've got better things to do on that particular day.

dasherhalo wrote:
I don't mind this with regards to stamping out sandbagging.... but is it right to scratch a player that's borderline keen to play, but gets ruled out? Then 4 days later he's good to play for his club? Conversely, it's not hard to fake a limp, then stage a miracle recovery, so it's practically impossible to police.

true, maybe they should have to be ruled out by the rep teams medical team rather then being ruled out by the clubs (which atleast half of the alleged examples would be the case)


i think the best solution is to get rid of rep round all together and try to play more international after the season (ideally i'd like origin after the season too but the TV $ won't let that happen)

dasherhalo wrote:

I don't mind this with regards to stamping out sandbagging.... but is it right to scratch a player that's borderline keen to play, but gets ruled out? Then 4 days later he's good to play for his club? Conversely, it's not hard to fake a limp, then stage a miracle recovery, so it's practically impossible to police.

Then I mentally moved on to "what about compensating clubs with rep players with salary cap concessions?", but how does that work? $30k a game for (for eg) JT?, and are the Cowboys really going to get value out of that?

I think the only logical solution is to consider it an honour to play for your state or country, and bag the living shit out of players who've got better things to do on that particular day.

More than that is that I don't think you should be giving the biggest salary cap concessions to the team with the most rep players. As a Bronco fan, who have historically had the most rep players, I don't mind missing half a dozen players to origin if it means that for the other 20 games a year we have more rep players than other teams.

Dip wrote:

More than that is that I don't think you should be giving the biggest salary cap concessions to the team with the most rep players. As a Bronco fan, who have historically had the most rep players, I don't mind missing half a dozen players to origin if it means that for the other 20 games a year we have more rep players than other teams.

Wouldn't have it any other way. Surely it's a source of pride?

[quote="Oz Sport Mad"]

Which pearce has not been able to do in his 7 or 8 series.

Pearce is such a bad halfback at origin level - that they moved him to 6 to take the fucking pressure off him.
Thats how bad he has been for NSW.

Now, dont get me wrong - Brilliant club halfback, just cant handle the pressure of state of origin. hes not the first and he wont be the last - but he is certainly one of them.

Cartwright is a certainty now. He looks a gut above the rest in this game.

Really like the look of this young Ryan Matterson. Way to let him go Eels!!

So it's part of all players NRL contract that they are available for rep games ??

Since when ?
If Pearce makes himself unavailable he may have to sit out the Rorters game ?
So all this time Jamie Lyon hasn't been one of the best 2 NSW centres even with Bozo picking the squad ?

Can anyone confirm it is part of the contracts with any level of assurance or is just another media beat up ?

Shanbon wrote:

1.Tedesco
2.Fegusson
3.Jennings/Bird
4.Crocker
5.Trbjevic
6.Hastings/Austin
7.Reynolds
8.Woods
9.Peats
10.Klemmer
11.Jackson
12.Graham
13.Trbjevic

14.Peachey
15.Paulo/Vaughn
16.Tamou/Merrin
17.Cartwright
 

update to my NSW team

1.Tedesco
2.Fegusson
3.Jennings
4.Bird
5.Trbjevic
6.Hastings/Austin
7.Reynolds
8.Woods
9.Peats
10.Klemmer
11.Cartwright
12.Graham
13.Trbjevic

14.Peachey
15.JDB (has improved a heap since i blasted him on this forum for being a plodder haha)
16.Tamou/Merrin
17.Cordner

Cartwright into starting side for Jackson, JDB in for Vaughan, Cordner replaces Cartwright on bench, Bird for Crocker.

How good was Peachey today

Ice wrote:Cartwright is a certainty now. He looks a gut above the rest in this game.

Really like the look of this young Ryan Matterson. Way to let him go Eels!!

Highly rated coming through the 20's lots of guys thought he should of debuted in 2014 when injuries hit. Not sure what happened or why BA wasnt a fan but last year couldnt hold his spot in NSW cup and played a bit in the grade below. Must have been a personality or training issue as he has always show much more skill and promise then Luke Kelly

Your Name wrote:So it's part of all players NRL contract that they are available for rep games ??

Since when ?
If Pearce makes himself unavailable he may have to sit out the Rorters game ?
So all this time Jamie Lyon hasn't been one of the best 2 NSW centres even with Bozo picking the squad ?

Can anyone confirm it is part of the contracts with any level of assurance or is just another media beat up ?

Its part of the contract.

Lyon sought and recieved what was basically special dispensation, or long service leave for rep duties. Go figure!

Shanbon wrote:

update to my NSW team

1.Tedesco
2.Fegusson
3.Jennings
4.Bird
5.Trbjevic
6.Hastings/Austin
7.Reynolds
8.Woods
9.Peats
10.Klemmer
11.Cartwright
12.Graham
13.Trbjevic

14.Peachey
15.JDB (has improved a heap since i blasted him on this forum for being a plodder haha)
16.Tamou/Merrin
17.Cordner

Cartwright into starting side for Jackson, JDB in for Vaughan, Cordner replaces Cartwright on bench, Bird for Crocker.

How good was Peachey today

Peaches was very good playing out of position in the centres. I think given how well he played there and that he can covers halves hooker or backrow, he is a near cert.

JDB doesn't do it for me. He is not n Origin type, he'll never be as good at club level as the likes of Tongue or Thompson and some of those other good club men that never played Origin. I though Latu was the best forward in the game today.

I'd have JTurbo, but I'm not convinced TTurbo is Ready yet, I think Mansour showed today he deserves a shot.

Teddy is not gonna be right for game 1 is he, so I'd be going something like this:

1. Coote
2. Mansour
3. Jennings
4. Dugan
5. Ferguson
6. ?
7. ?
8. Tamou
9. Peats (will be Farah)
10. Woods
11. Cartwright
12. Scott
13. Graham

14. Peachey
15. Fifita
16. Klemmer
17. Trbojevic

Obviously Gallen, Farah, Corder and probably GBird will be there.but that doesn't help our rejuvenation.

Re the halves, I think our best combo probably is Pearce Maloney to be honest, but as I've said many times, I don't think it matters too much.