Exactly.
For my thoughts on Cam Smith (and they are well documented here, believe me) he was full of praise for the heart and effort of the NSW defence last night. Say whatever you like about Freddy but that kind of resolute, all-in pressure defence has been a hallmark of his tenure, going right back to that first series in 2018 where they shut down Qld for 10 minutes minus Jack Bird.
NSW were in it until the 78th minute last night despite effectively setting up tents, a generator and a fire pit in their own 20 metre zone- and without arguably their top 3 most lethal attacking players from last series (Fox, Turbo, Latrell).
Yet (as I said earlier) the influence of Origin kayfabe means we have some NSW fans here bemoaning a lack of heart/ shitting the bed when it mattered, but it really came down to silly errors killing any chance they had at going for a tiring Qld pack in their own half, and a Cleary clutch-play attempt that would've paid off 50% of the time and have Nathan right now hailed as Joey 2.0. Unfortunately for him, it was the other 50% of the time last night and so we're back to the "he's a hack/ goes missing/ overrated" comments Munster gets whenever Qld lose. Amazing how short the memories are from people who apparently follow the game so closely. Never forget, Darren Lockyer didn't truly hit his stride at rep level until he was almost 30. He was one series loss from getting dumped out of the Qld teams. I'm not a PENRITH!!! supporter but Nathan is the most promising #7 for his age I've seen in a long, long time. He's not even 25 years old yet. It's amazing to think what he could do from here. If I were a betting man I'd be going out today and putting $ on PENRITH!!! to go back to back- he's going to feel as if he has a point to prove after last night and (I expect) is going to channel that determination into the Panthers. He also has a great team around him out there, which helps massively.
