Damnit. How many Queenslanders are there here?

John G lives in QLD I think, but is originally from NSW. You might be the only one!

Guess I'll be the only one celebrating in 1 week's time and then again 3 weeks later.

Doesn't bother us Quinn...we'll all just be pretending that we don't care. That is the NSW way!

I live in QLD, sunshine coast, but im definitely a NSW supporter, born and bred in NSW and played all my footy there too so in essence that's my origin of course and always will be, the tide will turn soon.

You must care now mint, what a great win, NSW showed great spirit and pride in the jumper, 81,000 fans and backed it up with a solid performance, gallens a freak and showed he can play prop no problem, sets up a great decider in QLD.

Not saying a word until game 3...

That's right , last night means nothing if QLD smash in game three, but NSW looked the better team the whole game and should have won game one, a full house of mad QLDers in Lockyers and petro's last origin games will be a massive bonus for them, if NSW win it will be one of the best coaching and playing performances in origin history.

I will say that Mini had an absolute blinder and it turned out to be a great selection. Watmough and Hoppa had great games, too.

Yeah great win, Queensland had nothing...hardly looked dangerous at any point. Maybe their great player are all a little past their peak.

I think both sides played pretty conservatively...the conditions weren't that bad at all so not sure why Queensland played that way. I think that style of game will always favour the current NSW side so thumbs up to Ricky tactically and thumbs down to Mal. Hopefully the Blues can improve again in game 3, because I think they'll have to.

What do you guys think of origin being stand-alone in future seasons? I'd like to see it. Stop the regular competition for 3 weeks and play origin on consecutive Sunday nights. Would be awesome, make SOO even bigger and would stop this ridiculous situation where half the games in the NRL become pretty crap for about 6 weeks every year.

I'll just pop by and say that the lot of you can fuck right off.

far exceeded my expectations. so much egg on face. minichello was fantastic and gallen immense. pearce played better than i've seen and even master of all trades jack of none gidley was effective of the bench. he's much better at dummy half. looked great being allowed to roam and stretch the defence linking to pearce and soward at first or second receiver. and far better than ennis of course.

shame hoppa's leaving. a backline of

1. stewart/hayne
2. hayne
3. jennings
4. hoppa
5. uate

they could put points on anyone.

i'd hardly say qlds great players are past there peak. it is only one win. the only one of their spine who has played better footy is lockyer. slater's the best fullback in the world, thurston the best half (and has been the league's best player this season) and cam smith the world's best player (according to me). you can make a case for petero. as for inglis he just has souffs syndrome. sooner he gets out the better.

and a stand-alone is a must. the drop in standard has been shocking. there have been some woeful club matches recently.

lol.

Our long kicking game was kind of disappointing , hardly finding grass, though Soward put in some decent cross-fields. Hayne was really quiet on that wing with only one significant touch that I can recall. Hayne almost crucified himself with his performance at the end of 2009 because now he can't even have a good game without everyone thinking he's overrated. He is now underrated.

oops. jack of all trades master of none***

agreed. strange considering their kicking games are just about the strongest facet. i've gone from disliking to hayne to just feeling sorry for him. he cops some seriously unwarranted serves. looks like a deer in the headlights, definitely low on confidence. still he's only 23 and i don't think his work ethic/ego is nearly as bad as everyone makes it out to be. with that much talent he'll come good.

NSW's injuries have really played havoc but they seem to be coping with them, the dilemma now is does Dugan come back in or even brett Morris? Jennings is apparently injured so a re shuffle will have to happen in the backline, perhaps this is the answer.

Minichello
Hayne
Gasnier
Lewis
Uate
Soward
Pearce

NSW can Slot Lewis in the centres, he plays wide now, has size and pace and good defence, allows another forward to be selected or more specifically another prop, but going by the approach they have a utility or backrower.