No soccer... let's talk State of Origin instead

After the week so far has seen me spending 12-13 hr days in the office, with no early morning meetings, I took the opportunity for a bit of a lie in and decided to take the late train (7:37am).  However I snoozed a bit too long and was pushing it when I got outside and found the car frozen solid!  The door to the car made a crack sound when I opened it due to ice and then the windscreen was very iced up.

Murphy’s Law dictated that the car was out of washer fluid so I had to head back inside and got some warm water from the kitchen.  Which worked a treat but of course as I pulled into the station carpark, the train was pulling away.  D’oh – missed it.

So here I am on the 7:50something and will be late in today – I think I am entitled to that :-)

I must admit I am struggling to write anything not involving soccer and the only thing I can think of discussing is last nights horrendous State of Origin match.  Seriously, the NSW halves played terrible and Brett Finch had a game that in any other situation would call for him to be sacked.  People say that a half back will always look bad behind a forward pack that is getting dominated, but I believe the reason the NSW pack got dominated was because Finch and Anasta kept throwing passes into the turf / decoy runners / opposition back line that the NSW forwards were forced to continually tackle or work it out from their own line.

Mason, O’Meley, Bailey, Hindmarsh are great forwards – they shouldn’t be blamed for last night.  To an extent, we need to look at the long term viability of Kite and Simpson, but seriously if they keep Finch in for Game 3, then you may as well hand the trophy to QLD.  In terms of replacements I think Matt Orford is long over due to get a run and if it wasn’t for his minor injury before Game 1, he would have got the nod.

Two things happened out of Game 1 that the selectors didn’t consider when it came to Finch.  Firstly, he had an average game.  He didn’t make any blunders like he did last night, but he was essentially a distributor and played minimal role in attack.  Consequently we didn’t put QLD to the sword when we had a 14-0 advantage, but given that we won in the end 17-16, it was put aside.  Secondly, he scored the game winning field goal which is great for the team, but not a golden ticket to the next game necessarily given he was an injury replacement.  He should have been given the pats on the back and asked to sit down again.  Instead, he gets sent to SunCorp against a fired up QLD and he got crucified.  Also, the fact that Finch had a shocker should not disguise the fact that Anasta also had a terrible game.  Due to lack of alternatives at 5/8^th he probably would get the nod for Game 3, but really he has never stepped up to the class required to play the key position of 5/8 in Origin.