Well that was an interesting game. It really highlighted the difference between a rookie, talented half and a guy who has been there and done that. Maloney bossed that game and in spite of making mistakes (I laughed at Gus saying "he has a terrible memory, he never remembers his mistakes") he took control and guided the team home.
Cleary was fine, he held his ground, defended well and steadied the ship. They ran at him a lot but they obviously forgot he is a nuggety unit who can tackle as well as anybody. I think he will be better with that under his belt and hopefully, the NSW forwards will give him a bit more room next time. Poor bloke got smashed a few times because the ball was given to him with QLD breathing down his neck.
I thought RCG started quietly and then just grew into it. Once he had a few runs and tackles under his belt he seemed to grow in confidence. NSW was treading water until he and Klemmer came back on in the second half and they gave NSW some forward momentum and also added some venom to the defence. He finished really strongly. 109m and 27 tackles is a great first up effort. He basically was able to do the same stats he can do at the Panthers, but against higher level opposition. His mongrel attitude fired up the other forwards.
Peachy also did well in his little cameo and managed to rack up 30 metres in his 7 minutes. Great effort and he looked well up for it.
Of the other newbies, I loved Cook and De Belins efforts and also thought Trbjeovic, Ado Carr and Mitchell went well. A bit disappointed in Vaughn though. I thought he looked a bit lost and we really stopped going forward when he was on. Roberts was also a bit too quiet, although to be fair there were large chunks of the game when we were going backwards and there was no space.
Is this the dawn of a Blue era?
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