1. Billy Slater (Melbourne Storm)
2. Darius Boyd (St George Illawarra Dragons)
3. Greg Inglis (Melbourne Storm)
4. Justin Hodges (Brisbane Broncos)
5. Israel Folau (Brisbane Broncos)
6. Darren Lockyer (C) (Brisbane Broncos)
7. Johnathan Thurston (North Qld Cowboys)
8. Steven Price (Nz Warriors)
9. Cameron Smith (Melbourne Storm)
10. Petero Civoniceva (Penrith Panthers)
11. Ashley Harrison (Gold Coast Titans)
12. Sam Thaiday (Brisbane Broncos)
13. Dallas Johnson (Melbourne Storm)

Interchange
14. Karmichael Hunt (Brisbane Broncos)
15. Ben Hannant (Canterbury Bulldogs)
16. Nate Myles (Sydney Roosters)
17. Michael Crocker (South Sydney Rabbitohs)

you bloody rippa!!



im not a thurston fan (think he's a big sook and crybaby on-field) but lately i have been silenced. he is playing s*** hot.!
wish prince could get a run. i think he is a gun also.
however no room for both till locky decides to hang up his boots.

5 broncos out of the 17
that's one of the lowest ratios its been in a long time

Princey will get his turn when lockyer retires in 1 or 2 seasons. Then cooper cronk

Well 2 are still in the team but now play for other clubs as of last year and a third that left two seasons ago.

So really there's 8!

Semi surprised Parker missed out, who is in 'his' position on the team?

but imo less Bronco's in there the better from a Bronco's perspective - less chance of injury and death affecting their season.

last edited by mission at 14:13:49 26/May/09

Semi surprised Parker missed out, who is in 'his' position on the team?

he is a back rower. so thaiday or harrison - there are two guns right there.

and crocker off the bench for skull crushing services is a good impact player to have.

definitely like thursto over prince, not just from recent times but for a long time now, sure he dosesn't quite have the show and go tricks that prince has but he is always more prepares to run to the line and pass the ball which works well with locky's game or use that wicked dummy

it's a real shame we have 3 fullbacks to choose from aswell, matty bowen could also easily be there.



last edited by paveway at 14:44:14 26/May/09

QLD 3 NSW 0

Worst NSW team ever.

one cowboys player! :(

QLD 3 NSW 0

Worst NSW team ever.

nah not even, that team has plenty of points in them if they get it together well

jennings and hayne have both had great seasons to name a couple.

it won't be enough to over come the class side qld has, but if they let complacency creep in we could easily get run over

I liked Parker over Harrison, and as always, I prefer hunt as a starter and Slater to come off the bench.

My thinking on this is...
a)Hunt defends better, and is definitely going to do better during the first 15mins or so when both teams try to defend really hard.
b)Slater, while brilliant, is often unpredictable (as seen in the RL World Cup Final) and can sometimes cause more harm than good.
c)I like Hunt more than I like Slater.

I don't really get the forwards at all to be honest. I don't like Myles or Johnson, and I wouldn't have picked Thaiday in the run on team. While Petro and Price are great players, its a worry that they are getting older now, and while they have both played ok this year, I'm sure NSW's plan will be to tire them out as much as possible. Hopefully they can manage.

woot flying down for this on wednesday, also have game 3 tickets lined up apparently so i hope its Game 1: QLD, Game 2: NSW, Game 3: QLD

because that would be awesome.

johnson is built for state of origin football, tackles himself to a standstill, just a hard, tough player. him and cam smith are two of the top tacklers in the entire competition this season so far. he isn't there to do anything in attack, but with the backs we have, you don't need a ball playing lock, you need one who will play 80 minutes and make 30 plus tackles.

myles brings aggro to the pack and although I don't rate him hugely, seems to always play above himself for qld, and thaiday will go great guns.
petero/price to put another good year, but agreed on the age issue, they are playing well for 34/35 year olds, but props will be needed in the next few years.

harrison over parker for sure, don't need parkers goal kicking because thurston is better anyway, as is cam smith, harrison is a better defender and just as damaging ball runner.

billy slater has the form to be the queensland fullback and hunt is a great utility player to have on the bench to cover anywhere in the backline.

but props will be needed in the next few years

hannant will probably take one of those spots, nick kenny and dave taylor would probably be looked at next year aswell

real shame he's leaving the bronco's, i'd like to know the real story there


i've lost a bit of respect for hunt after i read in the news paper he's another one of these '$500 000 a year' people


last edited by paveway at 15:19:36 26/May/09

yeah i agree - i hope hannant continues on course, nick kenny will need to up his game to get to origin level and dave taylor to hammer down a spot at souths and under gordie's tutelage to become a top tier prop.

pretty annoyed the bronco's managed to lose hannant and taylor in consecutive years

i got 3 chubbies at once reading through the list

dont clubs still operate on a $3 million salary cap ? Im surprised anyone gets $500k in those sorta conditions...

edit: $4.4 million. Highest ever single wage was $550k. hrrm.

last edited by Strik3r at 15:29:48 26/May/09

Yeah especially when they lost civo for a couple of absolute duds in Joel Clinton and Ashton Sims (who went beyond his usual form at the end of last year to cost the broncos the season).

Apparently Dave Taylor doesn't put in the minutes on the field. He goes missing until he puts on a big shot. Saying that, I am a fan and pissed he is going to souths.

karmichael is going to piss off to europe or japan, expect the announcement directly after Game 3 so he doesn't miss a selection or pay day.

$3 million

Over $4m now. I think.

last edited by ctd at 15:29:23 26/May/09

i know its all shame broncs lost 'im and 'im and 'im
but they seem to be doing something right sitting equal top of the ladder.

disclaimer: i dont support broncs but my son does so i have to take interest in their side

when you've got a backline like the bronco's does (even our young pups are going great guns, winterstein and glenn etc) with two classy ball playing representative halves and a couple of australian outside backs (hodges/folau) as long as you get just enough go forward and decent defense out of your forwards, you are going to win more games than you lose purely because of the points the backs are capable of.

they do lack forwards though - Kenny seems to be decent quality, but Sims and Clinton aren't that exciting.

as long as sims and clinton hang on to the ball they are going better than normal in my books

Old mate from Nightowl should definitely be in the team.

Old mate from Nightowl should definitely be in the team.

Should be? Last I heard he was leading the team out.

As long as he keeps away from the smokes he's a dead cert.

SLater is great in club footy but he aint got the right stuff for rep footy.
KHUNT showed what the right stuff is last year.

Maybe coz first game is in Melbourne he got the nod.

awww man it pains me to say this, but NSW are going to get hammered :(

That QLD > NSW team, let's hope NSW can prove me wrong!

see, thats dangerous;
underdogs in origin are almost where you want to be

Indeed!

Whilst I'll congratulate QLD if they win and if it's a 3 nil spanking fair enough, I still want to watch good competative games with massive hits and skills on show!

Hannant was a bigger loss than Taylor ever will be. Having said that, would have loved to see him stay in Brisbane.

Predictable QLD team, very strong. The NSW scares me though, as it has a real unknown quality to it. Kinda like what we did a few years ago before we went on this run.

yeah their centers could deal some pain, though i have full condifence in ours

they have done well the nsw selectors imo

they have picked on form rather than the 'tried and tested' guys that have failed, only took them 3 series loses to change their ways

last edited by paveway at 21:03:31 26/May/09