The Really NSW 2011 thread that will be hated by all!

[adamkungl]

Pearce has about three years of good performances to back his selection up and is the incumbant.

Selecting a player who's form has been waning since Round 2 and has a noted history of being inconsistent is silly.

Bingo. He's still 22 ffs, how many 22 year old halves just keep going without a patch of bad form? No one (except gaba and mrpwnd) was bagging him when he was leading most halfback stats last year.

Pearce also has a history of being completely MIA in origin.
At the very least Mullens 'waning' form still tops Pearce's current form which probably won't get any better in origin.

Wasn't MIA...Barrett's a hog. Get over your Pearce obsession or you'll start sounding like gaba...

 

[Dragon2010]

It comes up again and again because there are always question marks over his defence. He got bumped off a few times in the ANZAC Day game so it's not like it's gone completely. Weaknesses like that you can get away with in club games. You can't at rep level especially against a side like this Queensland side. No one doubts him putting his body on the line. It's the amount of tackles he misses. The last three rounds he has made 26 tackles. He's missed 10. That's a liability.

That's true I gotta give you that. It has improved. Still one of the better 5/8 in regards to defense. Still not top-notch though.

 

[Spanner in the works]

That's true I gotta give you that. It has improved. Still one of the better 5/8 in regards to defense. Still not top-notch though.

Just to be clear I wouldn't be against him in the NSW side just to see how he goes, but I will be watching very intently at his defence should he get picked.

 

[Joker's Wild]

Are those missed tackles a result of him hitting a player then dropping off once teammates come in to help or are they 1-1 misses that have resulted in line breaks?

 

[jbl31649]

All you Hayne fans will like this "Paul Crawley" wants Hayne to play 5/8 in city/country. Short memories, before Mortimer came along they tried Hayne there, but because he wasn't able to get an space he wasn't really successful.

He then goes onto state that Lockyer was successful at transition to 5/8. What he doesn't realize is that Darren played majority of his junior footy at 5/8.

I often wonder if any of these reports have ever palyed a game of League or even Union in their life.

Don't get me wrong hayne can be creative, but he is at his best in space, I don't know if he has the patience to be a successful 5/8, however testing in that position at city/country level would be an interesting experiment?

Any thoughts?

 

[Matt23]

I highly doubt Hayne would be involved in city/country

 

[Mr Angry]

Agreed Matt, I doubt Hayne will play city country, like Gallen and a few others NSW coach will ask that they are not risked.

 

[Matt23]

However I do think the likes of Mullen, Soward & Pearce all need to be involved in city/country

 

[Big Pete]

Can the same be said for Pearce? You say we should stick with him but if we had taken the line of sticking with the incumbent over a player who is clearly better, we'd still have Peter Wallace in the Blues 7 jersey and we all know how Broncos fans feel about him.

Thing is Mullen isn't clearly better. He's just in better form.

The Broncos game was diabolical and his performances against the likes of Canberra and St. George Illawarra were hardly convincing.http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/editpost.php?do=editpost&p=7341783

 

[Tom155]

Mullen is easily the better player & is in better form it's no contest between him & Pearce

 

[Joker's Wild]

Canberra? are you kidding? His kicking just about won us the game and his passing was right up there.

Against the Dragons he was given little room but still managed to lay on one of the best bombs you could produce for McManus's try.

The kid has turned a corner this year in both leadership and confidence.

 

[Big Pete]

Against the Dragons he was given little room but still managed to lay on one of the best bombs you could produce for McManus's try.

Kidley set up the McManus try.

He did come up with a great bomb though, absolutely bombed a certain try with a wayward pass to Kidley.

His long distance kicking game was good against Canberra but NSW don't really need a guy who can kick when they have Soward. They need somebody who can guide the team around and that's where Mullen is incredibly inconsistent. Actually, I take that back, he's consistent at going MIA in basically every big game he can.

Exhibit A: Brisbane

Exhibit B: 2007-2010.

 

[Joker's Wild]

Yep it was Gidley, my bad

That wayward pass was a little on the dusty side but Gids had 2 defenders in front of him so it was hardly certain.

Also his bomb to set up Houstons try and the beautiful short pass for Paterson were great.

I still fail to see where Pearce is a better option though, aside from offering a right footed kicker to go with Sowards left. If you wanna talk about halfbacks going MIA I only need to direct you to the 2010 GF

 

[Allstar Knights]

What has Pearce ever done without a quality halves partner? The answer is nothing. He was so overrated before Carney came to the club, it's not funny. Their team was struggling all of 2009 and Pearce could never come up with the big plays, and neither could his halves partner, Anasta. Mullen, although inconsistent, came up with the big plays even when his halves partner wasn't NRL standard.

Pearce had a great year last year when partnered with Carney. It improved his game because he had help in leading his team around and he new he could rely on Carney coming up with the right plays, in other words, he wasn't under a lot of pressure. Now that Anasta has moved to 6, Pearce has gone back into the overrated category and shown nothing to suggest he's the right man for NSW. Mullen has played consistent all year and he is capable of coming up with the big plays and that's not even mentioning his outstanding kicking game, which that in itself would be great to have for NSW, along with Soward's.

 

[besthalfbackPEARCE]

What has Pearce ever done without a quality halves partner? The answer is nothing. He was so overrated before Carney came to the club, it's not funny. Their team was struggling all of 2009 and Pearce could never come up with the big plays, and neither could his halves partner, Anasta. Mullen, although inconsistent, came up with the big plays even when his halves partner wasn't NRL standard.

Pearce had a great year last year when partnered with Carney. It improved his game because he had help in leading his team around and he new he could rely on Carney coming up with the right plays, in other words, he wasn't under a lot of pressure. Now that Anasta has moved to 6, Pearce has gone back into the overrated category and shown nothing to suggest he's the right man for NSW. Mullen has played consistent all year and he is capable of coming up with the big plays and that's not even mentioning his outstanding kicking game, which that in itself would be great to have for NSW.

That's cause he has Gidley in the halves.

 

[Big Pete]

I still fail to see where Pearce is a better option though, aside from offering a right footed kicker to go with Sowards left. If you wanna talk about halfbacks going MIA I only need to direct you to the 2010 GF

He's far more reliable and NSW have already gone to the trouble of making him the incumbant.

Unless something dramatic happens between now and Origin 1 I don't see the point in playing Mullen or how it'd be a joke if he wasn't selected.

 

[Joker's Wild]

That's cause he has Gidley in the halves.

Not all year champ. He has been equally as good with a rookie (Henry) next to him too

He's far more reliable and NSW have already gone to the trouble of making him the incumbant.

Unless something dramatic happens between now and Origin 1 I don't see the point in playing Mullen or how it'd be a joke if he wasn't selected.

Reliable for what?

Being the incumbent only gets you so far. At some stage it needs to make way for someone showing better form because Mitchell has shown little compared to Mullen this year.

Like I said before, if we stuck to the incumbent over a form player we'd still have P.Wallace playing for NSW and that would be scary

 

[Big Pete]

Reliable in that he actually puts in and can be counted on to do his job. Mullen as he has shown this season can't be trusted in big game situations.

That's true, incumbancy only gets you so far but Pearce hasn't had a chance to really prove himself in the Origin arena but Mullen hasn't been showing the type of form to displace him. He did early, but that stopped after Round 2 and putting in reasonable performances against nuffy teams is hardly a great endorsement.

No one is arguing that Pearce should hold the Blues jersey for the next 10 years and has immunity. Just that the selectors should stand by him.

Of course this can change if something dramatic happens between now and then but at this stage Mullen doesn't deserve the saloon passage.

 

[Joker's Wild]

I dunno man, I guess we'll have to just agree to disagree on this one.

I just dont see much in Mitchell that can win matches for the Blues. NSW have had a history of picking "solid" players over the past 5 years and it has gotten us nowhere. We need genuine game breakers and I think if Mullo can switch on (I know that is what you are saying is the issue, his history of not doing this) he can provide real spark.

Regardless of who they pick this year I will back them fully. I just dont wanna see yet another wasted year where we go for what is considered the "safe" options

 

[Big Pete]

Aye, we're just going around in circles.

In the end it comes down to preferences. I believe Pearce will compliment Soward's game more which is important because I see Jamie as the key for the Blues.

Of course if Mullen can reach those heights he showed in Round 2 and keep them up I'll be with you 100%.

Also agree, I just want to see both teams name their best possible squads and we get a series worthy of the hype.