Tallon Smith – Opinion

Since the conclusion of Game III on Wednesday, many people have asked me for my opinion on the Origin decider.

Family, friends, fellow uni students – heck, even my hairdresser who didn’t even watch the majority of the game.

I tend to veer away from covering the top level of the game, as it seems there are three journalists for every player, while coverage of bush footy is in decline due to the struggles of regional media.

But, here we are, and here it is.

Well, I started this series watching Game I with my two best mates.

AFL fans by trade, the two of them were ecstatic to see the Blues destroy Queensland on thor home turf.

I was a little more apprehensive for two reasons.

We should have won the game by more than the 12 point margin given our dominance through the middle spearheaded by Payne Haas.

Secondly, Queensland were favourites to win last year after being in the exact same position; having won Game I away, they had a neutral site Game II and a home Game III, only to blow their 1-0 lead.

My Dad, trying to hold on to the little optimism NSW fandom offers at times, said not to worry. 

History wouldn’t necessarily repeat itself.

Sadly, that statement wasn’t to be; in fact, he began to share my fear once Daly Cherry-Evans was axed in favour of dynamo Tom Dearden.

Looking back to last night, a couple of moments really set the tone for the poor performance from NSW.

The first was the reluctance of Dylan Edwards to take the high ball early in the match, letting it bounce. 

That really set the tone for the haphazard timidity seen through the rest of the match.

The second was Jarome Luai’s kick which was marked in the in-goal, leading to a seven-tackle set.

One can’t begrudge Luai however, given that his offload when on the ground was what sparked the shift that led to Stephen Crichton’s try that gave the Blues a glimmer of hope.

Speaking of that glimmer of hope, following that first try, the Blues, full of energy, rolled downfield to find themselves on the attack once again.

One big thing had happened; Queensland’s line speed had wavered for the first time in the contest – this was the Blues’ chance.

A couple of sets later, after a penalty and a forced dropout saw the Blues camped on the Queensland line looking to cut the margin to eight, Isaah Yeo was hit high on the last tackle.

As no penalty was forthcoming, NSW challenged the call when the handover was called.

There was no doubt to the tackle being high, but the entire play needed to be checked as per protocol. Fine.

But in going back through the play, they found a knock on.

Hudson Young had knocked the ball on, into his own foot.

Wait! What?

Yes, you read that right.

Bunker official Chris Butler said “Hudson Young does lose the ball forward into his own foot, which is a knock on. There is no intention to kick to negate it.”

Sound baffling?

In a mistaken application of the drop kick rule on a normal kick, where a player must have intent to drop kick the ball when releasing it to hit the ground, they said he had no intent to kick, and that it was a knock on.

The only problem? 

The intent rule is null and void if the ball doesn’t hit the ground, as you can’t knock the ball on unless it hits another player, the ground, or the goalposts. The ball hit none of those, only Young’s foot.

Under Butler’s definition, every kick since 1908 could be a knock on. Dumbfounding.

So what is the relevance of this missed call?

Well, it robbed NSW of a chance when the momentum was going their way. A chance they most likely would have wasted given their performance throughout the rest of the contest, but still a chance.

They wouldn’t create another.

In the end, a Queensland side, playing for their grieving skipper, executed a simple but effective game plan on the greasy Accor Stadium surface to perfection. 

Not a single error until the 69th minute.

That, my fellow Battlers, is how you win a game of footy.

They did it for the Munster family.

But here we are again. A carbon copy of 2017.

NSW dominate Game I in Brisbane, are the better side in Game II but lose by two points, and then get blown off the park in Game III.

It was also, as foreshadowed above, the exact inverse of the Blues’ efforts last season.

I guess history does repeat itself.