State of UGHigin

So I’ve now had a night to sleep on the events on last night in State of Origin and obviously as a New South Welshmen (or given the blog title I should say Jew South Welshman) I am both disappointed and angry.

When I analyse sporting results and performances I do always try to take off my fan hat and look at it objectively though. With that being said, even objectively I think NSW got screwed.

For starters, people are arguing over whether Robbie Farah played at the ball when he kicked it out of Inglis’ hands, but frankly it shouldn’t matter if it was deliberate or not for one reason. That reason is that Inglis knocks on again after Farah dislodges the ball. Thus, either way it is no try.

Now Queenslanders will rightly point out that even without that try NSW were down two. This is correct however it neglects the two other huge calls that went against NSW in the game.

The Greg Bird penalty for the dangerous tackle was rubbish, it lead directly to a try and everyone seems to be in agreement on that so I don’t need to go further.

The Jennings sinbinning itself is fine. Bloke ran in and threw a punch. If they are saying you can no longer do that, even in Origin, then fine. Problem is, he was one of many guys who ran in and threw a punch in that fracas and if you are sending Jennings, you have to send the guy who was throwing punches at him too. Thus it would be 12 on 12 and QLD never would have had the overlap that lead to their first try.

However this sinbinning incident made me think about an idea I’ve had for footy for years. People often talk about how they wish there was a third option besides a send off and a 10 minute sinbinning. The idea of a five minute sinbinning has been suggested but I think I have a better idea.

Why can’t footy take a great idea from ice hockey and give out a 10 minute sinbinning, but as soon (or if) the opposition scores a try, the sinbinned player gets to return for the kickoff.

That way the opposition does get a clear advantage to assist them in making the sinbinning offence show on the scoreboard, but not so much that they get said advantage for an 8^th of the match.

Surely this idea has merit. Unfortunately NSW didn’t have Nathan Merritt.

In the interests of not being too much of a sore loser I have added this section about the fact that NSW shot themselves in the foot plenty too. Carney was not only poor in his Origin debut, but actually looked scared. Gotta stick with him for Game 2 but he needs to step it up. NSW had several opportunities in attack and wasted them, including Glenn Stewart pushing a pass on the third tackle, constantly kicking to Tate rather than Boyd, dropping the ball and other poor decisions and plays.

The refs were terrible and a big factor in the result, but NSW could have won the game nonetheless and didn't.