- 1 day ago
Ryan Hoffman and Chad Townsend give their takes on what was a thriller in Game 1 of State of Origin 2026. The Boardroom NRL Podcast available on the Zero Tackle YouTube and podcast feed!
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00:00Chatty, game one. I was ready to switch it off at halftime, but you always have faith and state of
00:07origin because everything sort of happens.
00:09Look, everyone's going to talk about the send-off. I'm going to put in my two, Bob.
00:15I think if Caelan Ponga wraps his arm or wraps one arm, even though he still made contact to the
00:21head, I think it's 10 minutes in the bin.
00:23I think for the fact that it was a shoulder charge, he tucked his arm and he made forceful contact.
00:29And look, you only need to make the minuscule amount of contact with the head, which he did.
00:35Look, does it pass the origin test? I'm not 100% sure. But to the letter of the law, I
00:39believe it was a send-off.
00:41Yeah, I mean, it's such an interesting topic because to me, there's no doubt this was a massive call within
00:48the game.
00:48And, you know, I'm thinking to myself, like, I'm looking at this incident from an origin perspective.
00:54Like, so how the game's refereed, and I think we can all say that Ashley Cline actually did a pretty
00:58good job over the 80 minutes, right?
01:00This was obviously a big incident that we're talking about.
01:02But the talk before the game was that Graham Manersley said that this game was going to be reffed like
01:06an NRL game.
01:08Well, it wasn't, right? It wasn't. There was no whistle. Ashley Cline stayed out of it.
01:13Now, in this moment, I'm thinking to myself, geez, how am I reacting to this moment here as an origin
01:19moment, as an origin incident?
01:21There's no doubt Kalenponga tucks the arm. He doesn't wrap the arm. It's a shoulder charge.
01:26Does the shoulder contact the head? I mean, I don't think so. I genuinely think it's a head-on-head
01:30collision.
01:31Now, look, I've seen players get sent from the field in the NRL with head-on-head collision.
01:37And no swing and arm, just a head clash.
01:41So, look, after I've had enough time to sort of let the incident breathe and look at it,
01:45I actually thought it may have deserved 10 in the bin sufficient.
01:49If Kalenponga gets 10 in the bin, I'm okay with it.
01:52Now, I know there's a lot of people out there who are comparing the Joseph Suali'i incident from a
01:56couple of years ago
01:57where he was sent from the field.
01:59But, yeah, look, to me, on face value and where I'm at today, I would probably have been okay if
02:05it was 10 in the bin.
02:06Yeah, I tend to agree.
02:08But I think the mitigating factor was he tucked it in as a shoulder charge.
02:13Yeah.
02:13If it was a tackle where it was accidental sort of contact with a head slash a head clash,
02:19I'd definitely, definitely not a send-off.
02:22But the fact that he tucked his shoulder in a shoulder charge and all the onus is on the defender.
02:27Every single part of the game, the onus is on the defender to ensure it's safe.
02:32Kalenponga went in with a shoulder charge that is really unsafe.
02:36The player got ruled out.
02:37I hate referees ruling on the outcome.
02:40But he made forceful contact with the head, well, with the head in a shoulder charge action.
02:46Whether or not the contact was with his head or whatever,
02:48but the fact that he was making a shoulder charge, the shoulder charge motion,
02:53which is, I think, why Ashley Klein was dead serious.
02:55If you heard the talk over the referees, Mike, he was dead serious.
03:00It was going to be a send-off.
03:02And, look, he followed through.
03:03It was a major turning point in the game.
03:07New South Wales were out on their feet.
03:09They were looking for answers, to be quite honest.
03:12And I think the disappointing thing for New South Wales and what Laurie Daly,
03:16obviously we're talking about the errors, but as the errors, it was by senior players.
03:20It was by their senior group of players, which obviously Toto and Crichton had a pretty unfortunate night.
03:27But I think that was the most disappointing thing for New South Wales.
03:30Yeah, definitely.
03:31Look, the start of the game for New South Wales was extremely disappointing.
03:34Toto probably had a game that we've never seen Brian Toto play in his life.
03:39Three errors.
03:40Barnett dropped the ball with New South Wales' first set.
03:42Crichton wasn't at his best.
03:43So, you know, what happens if you come up with errors?
03:47Like, you give the opposition, as good as the team Queensland is, with the superstars they have in their side,
03:52attacking, good field position, and they made the most of it.
03:55Sam Walker was on fire early in the game.
03:58The short kicking game was a real feature in last night's match because, especially kicking on early tackles,
04:03I think it was a genuine game plan from both teams to get the fullbacks out of position.
04:08The Queenslanders, well, they went to the middle of the field a lot.
04:10They had that head fake from Harry Grant where he took James Sadesco, got him out of position by a
04:16couple of metres,
04:16back to Sam Walker, and then Cameron Munster on both edges.
04:19Then they were able to put those straight grubber kicks in for, you know, their centres and back rollers to
04:24score.
04:24So, they made the most of the early field position and early dominance in the game.
04:30But New South Wales, yeah, looked gone.
04:32And then the second half, they came out, that first set after halftime, I was like, all right, there's some
04:36life here, a little bit of an up and down.
04:39But that moment we spoke about earlier where Caelan Ponga went off the field, that's when, you know, momentum really
04:44started to shift.
04:45And New South Wales came home with a wet sail.
04:47Yeah, New South Wales also played, I thought, when he did go off quite well.
04:50They identified Kurt Capewell had gone to the centres.
04:53So, they were swinging the ball out there, swinging the ball out wide, and really sort of put him under
04:57a lot of pressure with Katoni Staggs,
04:58who I thought had a very strong game, both in attack and defence.
05:05I don't think New South Wales played the conditions well, but they got better as the game went on, which
05:11was pleasing for New South Wales.
05:13And look, I've said it a couple of times, I've said it to anyone who would listen,
05:17Ethan Strange is my most favourite player in the game of rugby league at the moment,
05:20purely for the fact that he competes on every single play.
05:23He's a half that sees defence as important.
05:26And the first couple of runs from Tino Fassu Malawi, they beeline, three or four runs beeline him,
05:32and Ethan sat him on his backside every single time.
05:35He is a talent, this player.
05:36He plays hard, he plays tough.
05:38A lot of people want to say, oh, this bloke's an origin player, this bloke's an origin player.
05:43Everyone's an origin player, if you're good enough.
05:45But Ethan Strange showed how origin players should play.
05:49He was phenomenal, Hoffia.
05:51Yeah, and the fact that he was able to do what he did coming in, obviously late inclusion into the
05:55line-up.
05:56You know, potentially we weren't sure of his involvement on the six-man bench, if he was going to get
06:00on.
06:01Obviously, Moses out with that soft tissue injury.
06:04Strange comes into the line-up.
06:06I thought the situation was perfect for Ethan Strange.
06:09You know, wet conditions last night, greasy.
06:12An opportunity for Nathan to take control of the whole game with the kicking, which we saw, obviously dominated all
06:18of the kicking game, organized the team around the field, which then allowed Strange to just run the football.
06:23And that's what he does best.
06:24He's such a great runner of the ball.
06:26He can break tackles.
06:27Defensively, he's very sound.
06:29Cut a lot of people in half.
06:31Great technique with his shoulder height.
06:33And obviously had one try disallowed, but then the try he scored.
06:36I mean, phenomenal.
06:37And, you know, moving forward, Hoffie, I actually see a world where in game two, I'm not sure of Mitch
06:43Moses' status on his fitness, but I actually see a world where Laurie Daly might retain Ethan Strange in the
06:485'8 role, purely for the fact, with regards to the balance of the football team and saying to Nathan
06:53Cleary, hey, this is your football side.
06:55You get us around the park.
06:56Strange.
06:57You do what you did in game one.
06:59Be that X factor.
07:00Run the football.
07:00Break some tackles and make your tackles.
07:03I actually really like the combination.
07:05You can't.
07:06He has to be in the six jersey.
07:07As far as I'm concerned, he has to be in the six jersey, I believe.
07:11They'll keep Mitchell Moses on the bench.
07:12Maybe Burton making way for him.
07:16Do you see any other changes for me?
07:18I was a bit disappointed with Adam Fanua Blake.
07:21Admittedly, at the time he was on the field, there was a lot of defense.
07:26They didn't get much chance to work with the football.
07:29But someone's going to have to make way for Payne Haas.
07:31And you've got Mitch Barnett as your workhorse.
07:34But they needed Fanua Blake to knock the door down.
07:36And he didn't get that opportunity.
07:38And obviously, Payne Haas will come straight back in.
07:40And he's the knock-the-door-down type.
07:43Does Adam Fanua Blake retain his position in the starting lineup or maybe on the bench?
07:47And what other changes do you possibly see?
07:50Yeah, for me, look, there's no doubt Payne Haas will come straight back into the side.
07:54He starts.
07:54Obviously, he's named to play this Sunday for the Broncos against the Dragons.
07:59Yeah, and due to that bad start from the Blues, obviously, the errors from Tottenham and Barnett early on.
08:05I mean, Adam Fanua Blake only had two carries in his first stint.
08:09I think he may have had 12 metres or 16 metres in his first stint.
08:12So, yeah, those numbers are down.
08:14But, you know, it was purely from the fact of the amount of errors that New South Wales made.
08:18Adam finished with around, I think he played 40-odd minutes.
08:20So, the usual stint of your front row.
08:22But, yeah, for me, obviously, Saifidi didn't get onto the field last night, you know, with the way that the
08:29six-man bench rotation worked for the Blues.
08:31Payne Haas comes in.
08:32Another one's Liam Martin.
08:34He's obviously spent a couple of weeks out with injury.
08:36Does he come back in to the team?
08:39What's the status of his game time fitness?
08:41Because I really like what Ola Kawatu and Hudson Young have done at Clubland over the past couple of weeks.
08:47I know Homoli went off last night with Kriam, but I thought he's – I think he's done enough to
08:52retain his spot.
08:53So, yeah, I mean, you know, and there's also a world where I guess our outside backs, obviously Tolu Kola,
08:59Stephen Crichton probably wasn't at his best last night.
09:02So, look, you know, look, I don't think New South Wales played well last night.
09:08They did enough to win the game, but I think there's still a lot of things to work on.
09:12And I don't know if – yeah, I think Laurie may make some changes to the line-up, especially in
09:19the forwards.
09:20Yeah, look, you mentioned Stephen Crichton.
09:22That's a really, really interesting one.
09:25Stephen Crichton is a quality player.
09:27He's a quality captain for the Dogs.
09:29He looks like he's down on a lot of confidence at the moment.
09:32He's in so many uncharacteristic areas, both in origin and Clubland.
09:37He needs to get some confidence back.
09:39And I thought Kola was absolutely tremendous last night.
09:42The amount of tough carries that bloke took out of his own end and being a smaller bloke, I expected
09:48him to probably get dominated a bit.
09:49But he was making metres.
09:50He was poking his nose through.
09:52He was tremendous.
09:52And then we saw what McLean did when he came on.
09:54He looked like he'd made 14 origins.
09:57Is there pressure on Stephen Crichton with such quality outside backs?
10:02I think Kola keeps his spot.
10:03And, look, Casey McLean showed that he's not out of spot there.
10:06Does Stephen Crichton need to go back and get some confidence back in Clubland?
10:10Or is he part of that crew that you just know, if you stick with him, he's going to come
10:15through in the end?
10:17He's such a quality player, Stephen Crichton.
10:18Look, I absolutely love what he does at Clubland and obviously at representative level.
10:23And a great leader as well.
10:25But there's no hiding the fact that he's so out of form at the moment.
10:29What he's done with the Dogs this year, I don't think has been up to his standard so far.
10:34I think you talk about someone like Casey McLean who did, I mean, not getting overruled by the occasion.
10:41Coming in off the bench, his first catch-up going up after the high ball, making half breaks.
10:46He looked like a veteran out there, Casey McLean.
10:49I was really impressed with him.
10:50And that's what I mean.
10:51To me, I don't think Stephen Crichton was picked in this side on form.
10:56Because if it was on form, he wouldn't have been there.
10:58He was there purely for the fact of what he's done before.
11:01And he deserved the opportunity to be there.
11:04Don't get me wrong.
11:05But it gets to a point now where there's no doubt questions will be asked.
11:08Should he retain his jersey?
11:10Is there someone else like Casey McLean who is playing really well at the moment at Clubland
11:14and then played well last night to take his position?
11:17It's a big call for Loz.
11:19It's going to be a serious defining call with some of these selections in Game 2 in Melbourne.
11:24Because there's no doubt the Blues, they'll need to be better.
11:27They weren't at their best last night.
11:29They got out of jail.
11:30They'll need to be better.
11:31Because I think openly, if Caelan Palmer gets 10 in the bin and then comes back on the field,
11:37I don't know if New South Wales win the game last night, Hoffie.
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