So it has come to this ...

[Howwy]

Thus was the Empress Dowager Cixi reported to have said as she and her court evacuated Beijing under Gen. Pershing's artillery assault during the Boxer rebellion around 1900.

For NSW supporters, maybe it's also a tagline for NSW's litany of defeat.

While it may be cathartic to savage players like Pearce, in the end it isn't helpful: if NSW doesn't have any better, then surely the larger question is WHY ? Is anyone of consequence in the hierarchy asking the hard questions ?

Any which way you slice it, whether it be numbers of players, clubs, organized competitions, coaches, heck even ticketed refs, my guess is the NSW emerges with something like a 2-3 to 1 advantage (does anyone have authoritative figures ?). Is there any measurable where QLD even has parity - never mind superiority - over NSW ? For this reason alone I (as a QLD supporter) thought the "average" series result would be a 2-1 NSW win. Yet there are 11 QLD wins in 12 years.

Maybe part of the story lies in the 1988 advent of the Broncos, which was accompanied by the demise of the 8-team BRL comp and a reorganization of QLD RL as a whole, so that players are now identified sooner and more efficiently developed. Can anyone comment with more authority ?

On the flip side, could there be something in the organizational arteries south of the border, esp. with player development ? Are kids now being developed more to "follow the coach's orders" than "just play" ? Why has there been no worthy successor to Johns post-05 ? Is there anyone involved with junior development who can comment with more authority ?

 

[RecordBreakingMaroons.]

There are answers to all of your questions(and more) but we good QLDers wouldn't be doing our side any favours by answering them would we. I mean, why show the Blues what they need to fix up? It keeps slapping them in the face year after year after year and they haven't got the sense to figure out what's slapping them in the face. This is one horse you can lead to water and it wouldn't have a flamin' clue.

We QLDers don't need to be doing these nitwits any favours by shining a light on the solutions.

It's no secret about Pearce so I like to prod the dopey tnuc. Pearce though is a symptom of a much more insidious catalogue of problems for the Blues.

 

[Travitoh]

On the flip side, could there be something in the organizational arteries south of the border, esp. with player development ? Are kids now being developed more to "follow the coach's orders" than "just play" ? Why has there been no worthy successor to Johns post-05 ? Is there anyone involved with junior development who can comment with more authority ?

The NSW halfback situation i would liken to Australian cricket post-Warne. Neither have looked for the next player, they've been obsessed with finding the next Johns/Warne and expecting results to emulate the great player before them. Don't be surprised if similar happens with Queensland in coming seasons as their spine disappears into retirement.

The most irritating thing about Queensland supporters after such a period of dominance is i don't think they actually realise just how good the core of the side is. There have been at least 5 potential immortals in that side and it will go down in history as one of the greatest sides that not only rugby league has seen but sport as a whole.
I often get told by (often younger) Queenslanders that players like JT and Cronk will easily be replaced by guys like Milford and Norman. It's actually laughable.
While there have been plenty of times that NSW haven't helped themselves in the past decade, Queensland will eventually fall back to the Blues and possibly even below the level.

 

[RecordBreakingMaroons.]

Keep dreaming rekcuf. QLD have more going for them than the players. But I'm not going to lay it all out. This is what NSW needs to be told what they lack and if you stnuc want to know you'd better figure it out for yourselves.

Your team keep holding onto the valueless things and step over what they should be taking notice of. That alone will keep on giving QLD the advantage.

 

[OldPanther]

Keep dreaming rekcuf. QLD have more going for them than the players. But I'm not going to lay it all out. This is what NSW needs to be told what they lack and if you stnuc want to know you'd better figure it out for yourselves.

Your team keep holding onto the valueless things and step over what they should be taking notice of. That alone will keep on giving QLD the advantage.

What's the point of commenting than? All you're doing is saying "git gud, suck it NSW."

 

[Howwy]

The NSW halfback situation i would liken to Australian cricket post-Warne. Neither have looked for the next player, they've been obsessed with finding the next Johns/Warne and expecting results to emulate the great player before them. Don't be surprised if similar happens with Queensland in coming seasons as their spine disappears into retirement.

The most irritating thing about Queensland supporters after such a period of dominance is i don't think they actually realise just how good the core of the side is. There have been at least 5 potential immortals in that side and it will go down in history as one of the greatest sides that not only rugby league has seen but sport as a whole.
I often get told by (often younger) Queenslanders that players like JT and Cronk will easily be replaced by guys like Milford and Norman. It's actually laughable.
While there have been plenty of times that NSW haven't helped themselves in the past decade, Queensland will eventually fall back to the Blues and possibly even below the level.

You could go back to the end of the War and there was a fairly steady stream of NSW greats, from Summons, Holman, (Billy) Smith, Fulton, Raudonikis to the more readily recognisable names of Sterling, Mortimer, Fittler, Daley and then of course Johns. But when Joey gave it away in '05 it was like the spigot was turned off. I'd suggest it's not an entirely unreasonable expectation that someone should have emerged in this 12-year hiatus but NSW is still waiting for Godot ...

I often get told by (often younger) Queenslanders that players like JT and Cronk will easily be replaced by guys like Milford and Norman. It's actually laughable.

Yes maybe they don't have memory of what the Bad Old Days were like (I go back to the early '70s). But then the chances of Thurston stepping into Lewis' boots also seemed laughable back in '05. Cronk himself didn't exactly set the world on fire initially either. Sometimes you just never know how the boat goes until you put it in the water,

While there have been plenty of times that NSW haven't helped themselves in the past decade, Queensland will eventually fall back to the Blues and possibly even below the level.

I don't believe that sort of "cycle" will be NSW's friend now any more than it was ours during the '90s: you could say our previous "Golden Generation" reached its zenith with the '87-89 outfit but then the next 15 years were pretty much owned by NSW and were broken only when Mal M. kicked a few heads in '06. Hopefully (for us) things are more organizationally solid now for QLD RL than they were then, with more consistent player development. For NSW, things won't change until they're made to change.