SOO 13 Game 1: Official NSW Squad

[the dude]

Gidley over Sutton is an effing joke

 

[BunniesMan]

Take your red and green glasses off mate. Remember a couple of years ago when half the Saints team was picked for NSW for Origin 1. How did that work out for us?

It's got nothing to do with bias. In fact if I had my red and green glasses on I'd be happy. Being one of the least origin affected premiership contenders in history will give us a better chance of locking up the minor premiership.

Putting my NSW blue glasses on is what makes me pissed off that 3 deserving players are being kept out of the team by 3 inferior players.

 

[big hit!]

I wouldnt have selected him but the above statement is blatantly untrue. Gids always steps up to the plate in his rep games and rarely lets the team down when hes had to cover a position. This is true for both NSW and the Roos.

Gidley is the only player I can name who has played so mant positions in his FG career. People need to come to term with the fact that coaches and his fellow players love him. Keep hating though, its funny watching so mant numpties on here carrying on like princesses without a clue

Feel free to tell us how you would intend to use him during the game.

No injuries BS, either.

How can he be injected into the 13 at anytime during the game to the benefit of the team?

 

[isaiah]

He never plays as well for NSW as he does for the knights. That's the point.

He just isn't a rep quality player.

very interesting observation. nsw selectors are experts in finding these type of players, they have found about 50 just in the last 7 years. i'm just hoping that now the cat is out of the bag, your side of the border doesn't learn from your mistakes and make a dynasty of your own. i may have said too much.

 

[big hit!]

It's got nothing to do with bias. In fact if I had my red and green glasses on I'd be happy. Being one of the least origin affected premiership contenders in history will give us a better chance of locking up the minor premiership.

Putting my NSW blue glasses on is what makes me pissed off that 3 deserving players are being kept out of the team by 3 inferior players.

What you're implying is that up to 6 Souths players are Origin calibre. That is the three that I've listed (South's 3 best players) that aren't NSW eligble, plus another 3 who you think should be in the NSW squad. As a Souths supporter & a NSWeslshman, I can tell you that those players should not be there. In the case of A Reynolds, one day maybe. Not right now.

 

[Moffo]

Is there a case for gidley?

Don't get me wrong i think he is average at best

But...if there is one thing he brings to the team it's a lot of big game experience. Something that we don't have a lot of. Is there a chance that he was picked for this reason?

 

[Joker's Wild]

Feel free to tell us how you would intend to use him during the game.

No injuries BS, either.

How can he be injected into the 13 at anytime during the game to the benefit of the team?

Dude, I said in the first line that I wouldnt have picked him, pretty much for the reason you are infering here. He is injury cover that we dont really need.

I just think its bullshit that he cops the "useless" tag so much

 

[wittyfan]

Bring the first 3 back!!!

 

[Raider_69]

By the end of his career, Gidley could have more than 15 SOO and Test appearances... surely he is by far the worst player to ever achieve this?

How the hell does this happen?

 

[shear_joy9]

Gidley is f**king shit. It's a joke that hack continues to be picked.I hope he's only there to cover injuries so with a bit of luck he never steps on the field

 

[Knights_Premiers]

Same old stuff with some NSW supporters congratulating QLD on 8 in a row. These people will never be happy no matter what team is picked. I think its a great side, only change I would have made is put Gal at lock, Hoffman out and have Grant at prop. What an impact bench! Merrin- top of comp for offloads, Watmough- world class, Fifita- absolute monster.

 

[Jono078]

I actually would have liked someone like Jamal Idris over Gidley.

Play forwards or backs, just not the key positions, but a re-shuffle would cover that.

 

[Hutty1986]

Same old stuff with some NSW supporters congratulating QLD on 8 in a row. These people will never be happy no matter what team is picked. I think its a great side, only change I would have made is put Gal at lock, Hoffman out and have Grant at prop. What an impact bench! Merrin- top of comp for offloads, Watmough- world class, Fifita- absolute monster.

Haha i opened this thread expecting that usual defeatist sh*t from the usual numpties and it sounds like they delivered. This is a very very good side, cant wait for the series to get under way

 

[JT_]

Agree it is still a good side, would have liked to see Tim Grant in there though. Also Carney should have been selected again, despite Maloney's good form.

 

[Bobby DIGital]

Pretty subpar team. Both Morris brothers, Gidley & Maloney shouldn't be there.

McCrone actually outplayed Maloney in City-Country. I don't understand the Maloney lovefest. He's massively overrated. Sure he's improved his defence from being the worst in the comp but he's still not up to it.

 

[Raider_69]

McCrone is lucky to be playing NRL football, let alone SOO. For a NRL half, he makes one hell of a butcher

 

[timka4]

Unlucky - Grant, Woods, Carney imo

Hoffman imo wont fail us but wont provide anything match winning like.

Gidley has showed better form recently and has played alrightt off the bench for us in the past but only because he had replaced Ennis. The shining light I heard from Laurie is that he didn't pick Gidley just to replace Farah, him sniffing around at the last 20 min could be ok, but not ideal.

Our halves combo isn't the most creative combo we can produce, but at least Hayne will be there to add some spark. B. Stewart was good for us but isn't a creator (which is fine because it's not a main feature of his game, like Slater, can finish a backline movement about it). So Hayne should help there.

Also another under rated blessing for us is having Bird play in the middle of the park, and not playing wider and dumming to the centre all the time. He played at lock a year or 2 ago for a couple of games and it was his best games in the backrow for nsw imo. Whereas abit wider out he hogs it abit more I think

Generally happy with the side though, everyone will always have 1-3 picks they'd rather have though, so yeah. GO NSW!!

 

[BranVan3000]

Same old stuff with some NSW supporters congratulating QLD on 8 in a row. These people will never be happy no matter what team is picked. I think its a great side, only change I would have made is put Gal at lock, Hoffman out and have Grant at prop. What an impact bench! Merrin- top of comp for offloads, Watmough- world class, Fifita- absolute monster.

Same old? If somebody has been congratulating QLD for 8 years there been totally right

 

[big hit!]

Same old stuff with some NSW supporters congratulating QLD on 8 in a row. These people will never be happy no matter what team is picked. I think its a great side, only change I would have made is put Gal at lock, Hoffman out and have Grant at prop. What an impact bench! Merrin- top of comp for offloads, Watmough- world class, Fifita- absolute monster.

Why not?

We were right at 5-0, 6-0, & 7-0.

Obviously, we want to be wrong. It just seems that some selections every year are a mind boggle

 

[timka4]

Woah guys, they picked Kurt Gidley?! 3/10.

Honestly, they could have thrown Gus Gould onto the bench - it wouldn't have meant jack given the formation of the starting pack. NSW could honestly operate off a 15 man bench in reality.

Honestly, I think this is one of the better sides the Blues could have picked. I have my doubts on the likes of Maloney and that backrow formation but it really comes down to personal preferences more than anything else.

I'm very interested to see how Hayne and Ferguson will play. For years fans have been calling for Hayne to play fullback and he finally begins a series in the custodian position. Jarryd has a lot of technical issues at the back, but his ability to ball-play and his natural athletic gifts make him a far more dangerous prospect than either Minichiello or B. Stewart.

Ferguson has been in relatively good form as of late, but it wasn't long ago he was regarded as one of the dumbest backs in the competition. Like Hayne, Blake is blessed with a lot of gifts but also like Hayne, he can let himself down by not applying attention to detail. Daley has really lead with his chin on this decision and I commend him for it. Ferguson is a confidence player and in-front of what should be a sold out ANZ Stadium, he should be in his element. His selection and performance will define Daley's stint as NSW coach.

So far, so good from the Blues.

Agree with this 100%.

Ferguson could be fantastic or have a Hodges debut.

Fafita for me deserves a pick a bolter, strong, aggressive as all shit, mobile, in great form. But I can also see him giving away 1-2 bad penalties, and a couple of dumb errors away aswell in his first 1-2 games. Seems like someone who will go in 180% which is good but could lead to errors which hurt us.

It's going to very interesting