NSW to wrap up the series
I’m going to tip the Blues to win tonight’s second Origin game by 18 points and wrap up the series in Queensland. This will give them huge satisfaction and leave the Maroons disconsolate.
I just think the Blues have it over Queensland in the forwards. They certainly did in game one and I can’t see the Queensland side turning it around, even with the addition of Steve Price.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Pricey will make a difference and be right up for this game, because even though he was injured he would have kept training, ate the right foods and kept his fitness up. He is just that type of guy and he will play well, but to me NSW are too strong for Queensland up front.
I think Queensland will actually benefit from not having Darren Lockyer there. It may just galvanize them a bit in terms of the fact everyone thinks they can’t win it without him.
Darren would not have been 100%. I doubt he would have played the full game and with the return of Scott Prince I think the Maroons will gain a player who feels like he has something to prove as well as the form player in the NRL.
Queensland’s big worry is the loss of Justin Hodges. Hodgo can turn a game, is solid in defence and without him they are minus a star player.
I have been a bit bored with the lead up to this years series. It seems as if no player is willing to stir the pot except for Willie Mason. That’s always been Willie’s go and Queenslanders shouldn’t feel too bad, he calls me a redneck all the time!
On to Parramatta and the last couple of weeks have been interesting, I felt we should have beaten the Broncos a fortnight ago. We should have made more of our opportunities in the first half and in the end we were burned by some bad luck.
Darren Lockyer’s kick could have bounced in any direction. Unfortunately for us it sat up perfectly for a flying Denan Kemp, who is now known as the Destroyer after his four tries. I would like four in a season let alone a match.
The mood in the dressing room was sombre after that one. Everyone sat around quiet for a long time, but after the disappointment I came to realise we improved a lot and we were able to continue that against the Raiders last week.
I don’t care what anyone says about Canberra, they always play a decent game and you have to be wary of them or they can hurt you. To our credit the whole team played well and I was very impressed with the backs.
Feleti Mateo had a great game despite his bizarre haircut. I don’t know what’s going on with the shaved lines. Krisnan Inu played well and Joel Reddy was awesome, while Finchy was also very good.
I was also really impressed with young Tony Williams. The kid is huge for a winger, has great pace and could be a special player.
He replaced Eric Grothe and to Guru’s credit he has taken his relegation well by training hard, putting his head down and getting ready to make the trip to New Zealand for the Jim Beam Cup this week.
This weekend we are preparing to take on the Tigers in what I believe is a stretch of four Sunday games in a row, which I will enjoy.
The Tigers always seem to aim up when they play us and this week will be no exception. They have shown some good form recently with the likes of Brett Hodgson, Mathew Head, Benji Marshall and Robbie Farah all playing good footy.
I think we will run a bit of traffic at Mathew Head and try and shut him down when he is kicking the ball. To me he still seems to be carrying a bit of a knee problem so we want to make him work and negate the danger he presents with the ball.
Of course we will also run plenty of troops at Benji Marshall. I feel sorry for Benji to have had the shoulder problems he has had, but we would be silly not to try and expose him in defence. Because honestly after that many shoulder injuries he can’t be completely confident when it comes to tackling.
At home Buster is nearly walking and Bonnie and I are waiting with anticipation, while Archie appears to be moving on from Thomas and is now keen on The Wiggles, whose tunes are getting in my head.
Hindy
