How can anyone say that the half back that has led his side to 4 straight grandfinal wins and one of them almost single handedly cannot play Origin Football.
Up until last night he had played 16 games witha 50% win record. He doesn't need to be defended as the best player in the world (I am no Cleary fan as a person) his record proves he is. His coaches for NSW (forget last year he was out) have been pretty ordinary and Meninga at a National level does/did him no service.
It can only be dumb Parramatta fans that would always blame the half back when the forwards provide no platform.
The answer is simple Laurie Daley was completely out of his depth. He coached this side from world beaters in round 1 to nothings in round 3. He just does not get how the modern game has changed since he played. That's a reflection on him and the NSW process, not the game.
His interchange use last night was disgraceful, his understanding of how the game would be refereed was also total naiveity. Klein managed the game in round 2 and now come round 3 just left the game to its own devices. Qld played with lightening play the balls and laid all over the NSW ruck, basically discounting any play the ball speed NSW could garner. They finally woke up to that in the last 20 minutes and guess what, they were pretty even through that period.
Get over it, I'm a NSW supporter and we were completely outsmarted and out coached.
Replies
I have this addressed this.
Alchol will do that Mickey.
If Its Irish whiskey then that's okay .
I don't think anyone is really saying Cleary can't play Origin. But something is definitely amiss. He dominates at club level to a standard, up there with Fittler, Johns, Lockyer, Thurston, Cronk.
But facts are - he doesn't stand out at Origin level like they did, for whatever reason. There is plenty wrong with the current NSW setup. Yeo shouldn't be there, let alone captain, Edwards has had his time and Papenhuizen should have been picked at fullback. The coach is an unmitigated disaster. But the NSW attacking structures last night were rudderless. And that is on the half-back.
I amnot, good and fair points mate.
That said I am an avid horse racing person and usually look to blame the trainer and the jockey, I am assuming the horse was ready for the race.....I am not sure Cleary has been well prepared for the Origin Race, maybe more the big one in October.
Maybe its the Penrith System....he needs that to be elite maybe ? once you play origin you need to be a true footballer eyes up and reactionary ......thats why the reverse was evident with Wally Lewis great at Origin not so in club land
I've been saying for years on here about origin the difference between the two sides invariably comes back to who had the the better kicking game.
Cleary injury or otherwise hasn't kicked as well as he normally does , Moses took a lot of pressure off in game 1 and NSW were dominant .
On to game two with the bog average kicking game of Luai dominating the first half we got pumped , Latrelle and Cleary took over the second half getting us back into the game.
Game two Luais first kick is caught in goal, 7 tackle set resulting in points and it didn't get much better.
Munsters high kicks caused all sorts with NSW reluctant to attack them on the full.
If Moses played and they utilised his long kicks early in that first half chasing hard that game would have been a lot closer.
Theres never much between the squads its a possession based game with a quality kicking game paramount and we were beat there first.
If iwas Mitch I would be happy in hindsight to have not played.....lots of knives in the air and who knows who is throwing or directing them.
Origin Blindness! I like this title Pops, for a different reason. It reflects how i'm feeling about football in general at the moment. I'm finding that I'm becoming numb to our Eels and numb to origin and our Blues team. My Blindness is stemming from the first time in my life I'm finding myself turning the game off at half time. I've never done that, but last 2 origins and the few recent Eels games. Just not enjoying the game. Not being competitive maybe has a lot to do with it, the 6 agains and the refs lottery with penalties and interpretations are just so inconsistent. It's ruining what I like in a footy game.
I'm with you here BE. Some games can be really entertaining whereas majority of games incl Eel & last two origins I find quite boring. Lucky to get to half time most of the time
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