NSW Blues

The was a good point made on NRL 360 last night that due to channel 9 requirements, half time went for 22 minutes (both teams knew this would happen), so the players were well rested by the time they got back on the field. Makes the decision to put Fifita on for Gallen 5 minutes after half time instead of 5 minutes before half time when they would have been more tired and NSW had the momentum even more baffling.

Also another reason to be cranky with channel 9. I know the half time breaks have been 15 minutes in the NRL for some time, but I thought the rule book actually says 10 minutes. Almost everyone agrees we want to bring fatigue into the game to open it up for the quick guys, but here we are sabotaging our own game. Surely there was enough time for ads in the 45 minutes from when the telecast started to when the game kicked off.

We need someone to protect Maloney all game. Cordner did a good job of it.
I wouldnt be surprised to see Scott brought in.

22 minutes is absolutely ridiculous


i don't blame 9, i blame the NRL for consistently bending over to them. it'd be good to have some decisions made for the good of the game and not a few extra dollars

Pieman wrote:We need someone to protect Maloney all game. Cordner did a good job of it.
I wouldnt be surprised to see Scott brought in.

that was part of my reasoning for wade Graham who plays off his hip at club level

leaguegod wrote:

i think i'd start bird, i'd rather bird play a bit more edge minutes this time around so we can find more minutes for fifita and klemmer


bring friz on after 30ish(to play out the game from there)  and give either bird or jackson a spell (probs jackson) then jackson comes on for bird after 10-15 in 2nd half and we still have the ability to throw bird back in the middle in the last ten

I think Fifita should be playing on the edge also, but agree he and Klemmer need more minutes.

leaguegod wrote:


that was part of my reasoning for wade Graham who plays off his hip at club level

Yeah i wouldnt mind him being there but it wont happen.

Dip wrote:The was a good point made on NRL 360 last night that due to channel 9 requirements, half time went for 22 minutes (both teams knew this would happen), so the players were well rested by the time they got back on the field. Makes the decision to put Fifita on for Gallen 5 minutes after half time instead of 5 minutes before half time when they would have been more tired and NSW had the momentum even more baffling.

Also another reason to be cranky with channel 9. I know the half time breaks have been 15 minutes in the NRL for some time, but I thought the rule book actually says 10 minutes. Almost everyone agrees we want to bring fatigue into the game to open it up for the quick guys, but here we are sabotaging our own game. Surely there was enough time for ads in the 45 minutes from when the telecast started to when the game kicked off.

yeah absoute joke dippy!
Channel 9 should be doing what the NRL/NSWRL/QRL/ARL wants, not the other way around.

Your Name wrote:

I don't get it....

Random wrote:

I don't get it....

Maybe have a look at the name.

Krump wrote:

Random wrote:

I don't get it....

Maybe have a look at the name.

Oh my bad losers all look the same....

Random wrote:
Oh my bad losers all look the same....

With the news of Cordner going down...

Could it be?

Could it happen?

Could it be time for the Friz!!??

leaguegod wrote:

i think i'd start bird, i'd rather bird play a bit more edge minutes this time around so we can find more minutes for fifita and klemmer


bring friz on after 30ish(to play out the game from there)  and give either bird or jackson a spell (probs jackson) then jackson comes on for bird after 10-15 in 2nd half and we still have the ability to throw bird back in the middle in the last ten

Yeah you'd have to think Friz will get the gig, given he was 19th man and plays Cordner's position.

Your proposed rotations/interchanges make a bit of sense too.........so yeah obviously Daley will have a vastly different and far more illogical game-plan up his sleeve.

Dip wrote:The was a good point made on NRL 360 last night that due to channel 9 requirements, half time went for 22 minutes (both teams knew this would happen), so the players were well rested by the time they got back on the field. Makes the decision to put Fifita on for Gallen 5 minutes after half time instead of 5 minutes before half time when they would have been more tired and NSW had the momentum even more baffling.

Also another reason to be cranky with channel 9. I know the half time breaks have been 15 minutes in the NRL for some time, but I thought the rule book actually says 10 minutes. Almost everyone agrees we want to bring fatigue into the game to open it up for the quick guys, but here we are sabotaging our own game. Surely there was enough time for ads in the 45 minutes from when the telecast started to when the game kicked off.

That was when Walters and Daley were on 360 right? I was listening but not watching. Did they actually say the teams were aware it was going to happen as Walters seemed like it was a surprise?

dugan racing to be fit. i'm a dugan fan but is he really at the standard where he come in having not played for a month and be under an injury cloud up untill game day ? i don't think he is, rest up duges.

leaguegod wrote:dugan racing to be fit. i'm a dugan fan but is he really at the standard where he come in having not played for a month and be under an injury cloud up untill game day ? i don't think he is, rest up duges.

I think he's that much of a game breaker that he could come in without playing and be a gun player, he plays with at Origin level. If he's under any injury cloud or not 90% you don't risk him.

leaguegod wrote:dugan racing to be fit. i'm a dugan fan but is he really at the standard where he come in having not played for a month and be under an injury cloud up untill game day ? i don't think he is, rest up duges.

Im a Dugan fan aswell - but racing him back to replace a perfectly good centre in Morris is madness. If you had no options, maybe.

Totally agree RE Dugan - if hes not 100% dont pick him.
I am happy with either wade graham or friz or carty joining the side. Graham makes the most sense but either way, bird can just play left back row and they can go from there.

The interesting one is fullback and #14.

By all reports they were going to pick tedesco before he got hurt, do they go back to him now? Personally, I would like to see him in the side somewhere - at 14 or 1.

Jesus they better not pick walker again in the 14

Teddy in the 14 excites me, purely for the fact that if you let him roam in attack and let him pick his spots it makes us a lot more dangerous but where does he defend? He's never had to defend in the front line. Do you push Fergy up in defense into the centres so Teddy can defend on the wing?

Are they rushing Dugan back to be fullback or centre? If you're rushing him back to be centre, then I don't understand it (but then I don't understand why Morris was ever dropped in the first place). Also if he reinjures himself (and lets face it, everyone is worried about that happening because it's Dugan - you wouldn't have the same issue if it was say Cronk) then unless you have Walker on the bench again it means that you'll have a second rower (or a utility who hasn't played centre) defending Inglis for the majority of a match you need to win at Suncorp. I doubt there will be many NSW fans feeling confident about that.

If you rush him back to be fullback, then I reckon that puts Moylan back a fair bit in his confidence level. In game 1 Moylan was effectively named fullback with Dugan at centre when they sent Morris home. By naming Dugan at fullback they're basically saying to a debutant (who did okay in game 1) that they don't believe he's the right person to be there. I don't know if you want to send that message to a debutant after 1 game when you have a few new guys in the team. You don't want guys like Mansour, Reynolds etc with that extra pressure straight away in a do or die match.

Edit: I guess you could put Ferguson at centre and then put someone from the bench on the wing outside him if Duges goes down. As a Queenslander I like that too. Peachey on the bench would probably ease a lot of that concern too.