origin sledges

[Ken Gargett]

the paper recently printed a few of the fave sledges from origin. to be honest, the contest has been going for 35 years. they might have found a few more.

let's hope the game is better with the best team (QLD) winning.

Gallen asked - Will you be reminding Daly Cherry-Evans about his shiny new salary and the damage to his reputation that came with it?

“Nah I might need a loan off him one day.”

The Blues skipper added some much needed spice to the pre-Origin hoopla by teeing off on the Cane Toads on Tuesday, following in the rich tradition of Origin’s war of words.

MAROONS ‘DISRESPECTFUL’ AND ‘GRUBBY’, SAYS GALLEN

the best one-liners Origin has to offer from it’s rich 35-year history.

“I’ve got a Test to play”

Steve Walters and Benny Elias waged some ding-dong battles over the years, but it was all one-sided during one early 90s of Origin when Elias was taking his time getting to a scrum.

Walters, who had claimed Elias’s Kangaroos jumper at the turn of the decade, piped up “It’s OK for you Benny, but could you hurry up, I’ve got a Test to play on the weekend.”

“You’re number two”

Justin Hodges was also going to feature in a list like this, and he did himself proud in the 2007 series opener when he tangled with legendary NSW hooker Danny Buderus.

Pointing at teammate Cameron Smith, Hodges mouths “he’s number one,” before gesturing to Buderus with two fingers held up and “you’re number two.”

No real room to move for Buderus in that one considering Smith had claimed the Australian No.9 jumper a year earlier.

Paul Gallen’s got runs on the board well before declaring Queenslanders “two-heads” at the start of last year’s series.

“It gets boring hearing Queensland always talking about themselves ... and how they hate us,” Gallen said ahead of the 2008 Origin opener. “I feel the same way, times a thousand.”

And how did the Maroons respond? “Well, we hate New South Wales times infinity, no returns.”

Queensland coach Mal Meninga took a dim view of the “faceless men of influence” who he believed to be conspiring against a sixth-straight Maroons series win in 2011, and he let rip in his Courier-Mailcolumn.

“The team once again stands triumphant, their success hiding the filth and rats that continue to linger in the sewers and dark corners ...” Meninga wrote after wrapping up the series in game three.

When James Tamou threw his lot in with NSW in 2012 despite pledging his allegiance to New Zealand, Blues coach Ricky Stuart took a dim view of Queensland’s protests.

“Queenslanders only need to see someone eating a banana and they try and claim him,” Stuart said.

Willie Mason’s popularity north of the border reached an all-time low in 2008 when he was asked what he expected from the masses ahead of game two at Suncorp Stadium. “They’re going to have 65,000 nutbag, redneck Queensland supporters supporting them and going mad and hating us,” Mason said.

The banana-benders didn’t forget Mason’s jibe either, not when the Maroons belted NSW 30-0, or when Mason signed an ill-fated one-year deal with the Cowboys in 2010, with fans reportedly throwing away merchandise in disgust at the news.

[soutso]

So far this series Qld won the first game but more galling was that they denied us Blues fans of our greatest origin joy.

They put a screen in front of the camera in the Qld dressing room, robbing us of watching Big Mal staring at the fans whilst continuously saying the word "Red" backwards.

We do console ourselves by watching Big Mal's attempts at becoming a politician:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79LaIL6x5d0

You win the games more often than not, you have the better players..... but on this WE DINE FOREVER!

[Ken Gargett]

believe me, i strongly suspect the vast majority of qlders are with you in oodles of relief that mal is not a politician. lord spare us.

given our pool of players is statistically 20% of the NRL, there is no reason we should have the top players (other than the fact that qld is godzone), and especially as nsw regularly attempt dodgy claiming of players (tamou? holy crap, the bloke flew over nsw and you claimed him. we never do that) but a lot has been because most of your players have really never quite understood origin. we have had a rich vein of players in the last decade but there has been little in it.

what has had us in fits of laughter up here lately is all your blokes claiming ours are grubs and dirty players. i will give them credit. i cannot believe they could all do it with straight faces. bird, gallen, barrett, klemmer, farrah, scott, reynolds, of late, plus barrett. brett white, les boyd and on and on and on. we dream of being able to play half as filthy as your mob.

[bummy]

Ken it's been hard to beat you blokes because your coach( michael hagan )is very good coach! Greg inglis is a great player , that's right he rang a Queensland numder by mistake & that made him eligible !, good luck to the Queensland blues lol

[soutso]

Ken,

Qld play a very dirty/grubby game. They do it in a far more discrete and clever manner.

Nate Myles (a player I now love as he will be a Sea Eagle next season lol) goes into tackles leading with his head in a very dangerous way. Cameron Smith, a player I believe should one day be granted 'immortal' status can be a complete grub. Twisting players arms and legs, kicking players whilst being held down. He does all this in a way that makes it appear ambiguous. He's the smartest player I've ever seen. Billy Slater has a very dark side also. He can be seen sliding in with his knees or forearm toward a players head or back. He often does it when conceding a try. He can lift his knees toward players heads when catching a bomb.

Us Blues are no better, its just that our lot do it in an obvious way. Leading into a tackle with a swinging forearm is just dumb. You should place your arm across your chest/torso and just crash land on a tackled Queenslander's back!!! (Though not Nate, we don't want any long term injury to the boy)

With regards to Tamou, well there are plenty of Maroons that were born in NSW. This isn't a point I personally carry on with as I feel that if a player wishes to play for either state, then that's where their heart is. If SOO is to keep it's passion then players should play for who they want to as then it carries greatest meaning.

I hope it pours in Melb tomorrow. I think that type of weather will suit us more than Qld.

[Ken Gargett]

the one i'll concede is that billy does slide in with knees but i honestly believe it was something, a bad habit, he got into his game early and uses it to try and save tries. regardless, he needs to get it out of his game.

cam smith doesn't need to play that way - he might be the cleverest player since the king.

but otherwise, we are not in the same postcode when it comes to the niggle and filth.

nsw stand so far offside and are allowed to get away with it, that the rain is less of an advantage to your blokes than it might otherwise be.

the best 'origin' for origin story i heard was back in that greatest series of them all - 1995, when all our blokes were banned for super league and we came up with a mob of kids, hasbeens and nobodies (ben ikin had played 3 games as an 18 year old and had to ring to check that there was not another ben ikin in the comp and when he met fattie, fattie thought he was a kid chasing an autograph).

they were after a hooker and there was simply no one they could find. went through local club footy and every team. finally somewhere said what about wayne bartrim, who was playing backrow for seagulls i think. we could shift him to hooker.

no, says someone on the panel, he is from murwillumbah.

'close enough' says fatty and in he went.

i can't think of a bigger upset in sport than 95, largely because it was not one game that was the massive upset, but all three. extraordinary.

[soutso]

Ken, that was a special series indeed. Fatty is very dear to me and that's one success even I am proud of. For that series, Qld were Manly like!

Your comments about NSW are eerily similar to the comments New South Welshman make about Qld. As fans, we just see the game that way.

Let's hope tonight is a classic. Enjoy the game, not the result!

[Ken Gargett]

Ken, that was a special series indeed. Fatty is very dear to me and that's one success even I am proud of. For that series, Qld were Manly like!

Your comments about NSW are eerily similar to the comments New South Welshman make about Qld. As fans, we just see the game that way.

Let's hope tonight is a classic. Enjoy the game, not the result!

and, with the greatest respect, this is why we still don't believe that nsw understands origin. sure, love to have a great and exciting game but every single qlder would prefer a win to that.

it is a bit like the ashes. love a brilliant series of close games and great play but first priority is to win the thing.

[partriar]

[RickHendeson]

. . . Are you all speaking English?

[madbunny]

kenny kenny kenny just a bit wrong regards to bartrim,this is where the loophole began i grew up with wayne and played a year below him and we dont live in queensland just happens to be near macksville in qld haha

[Ken Gargett]

kenny kenny kenny just a bit wrong regards to bartrim,this is where the loophole began i grew up with wayne and played a year below him and we dont live in queensland just happens to be near macksville in qld haha

so you are saying he grew up in nsw - i might have got murwillumbah wrong but the rest is right? or are you disagreeing?

one thing that has fascinated me is how nsw have been claiming qld offside all night last game.

i was furious all game because nsw was way offside all night and getting away with it. that said, i'll happily confess i wasn't really watching us. we may have been as well (though of course i doubt it). but i suspect all those hinging about qld equally took little nature of their own side. human nature.

i'm starting to think that both sides may have been way offside all night.

i really hope they enforce that. big advantage to us if they do. does nsw really want inglis and JT with an extra year? it could be carnage. and speak with so and so.

went to my local bank today. yes, come through. so i walk into the office. damn woman was wearing a blues jersey. i knew it would not go well. she laughed and said, 'don't worry, i'm actually a kiwi'. not sure we got off on the right foot, when i said that was worse.

[soutso]

?

[madbunny]

im nsw all the way but i love a good game bar the push and shove crap that has come into the game ,not much between the two teams last night and i liked that the two teams were kept apart and could play a good game not the dour stuff,regards to wayne bartrim he grew up in hat head nsw which is near kempsey and he played for smithtown before signing for the seagulls but thats a long time ago hehe go the blues

[soutso]

I was touched by Tamou's embrace of little Billy Slater. It was like a proud father's embrace of his son before giving him a kiss on the cheek.

The Blues are just the best bunch of guys.

[Ken Gargett]

im nsw all the way but i love a good game bar the push and shove crap that has come into the game ,not much between the two teams last night and i liked that the two teams were kept apart and could play a good game not the dour stuff,regards to wayne bartrim he grew up in hat head nsw which is near kempsey and he played for smithtown before signing for the seagulls but thats a long time ago hehe go the blues

i've fished hat head. top spot.

as for last night, unless someone has an obituary for those disgraceful cheats in white (and especially the scum running the video), better nothing is said. a return to the bad old days.

[JohnS]

i've fished hat head. top spot.

as for last night, unless someone has an obituary for those disgraceful cheats in white (and especially the scum running the video), better nothing is said. a return to the bad old days.

Yes...the bad old days. If only we had referrees like Barry 'the Grasshopper' Gomersall!

[Ken Gargett]

Yes...the bad old days. If only we had referrees like Barry 'the Grasshopper' Gomersall!

gomersall-5384282.jpg

as the king said, there were plenty from down south a lot worse than the grasshopper.

dear old barry - his greatest fault as a ref in those days was that he had no idea how to do it surreptiously. the southern cheats of the day had the gall to actually pretend they were impartial.

i thought those days were gone. until last night.

[JohnS]

Ken, I was thinking last night how your blood must have been boiling and steam was coming out of your ears at the standard of refereeing!

[partriar]

It makes complete sense from a business point of view, need to make more money, strech it out, build it up, blah blah blah...

I hate that sport has become such a big business that is has lost its unpredictability. Even before the players took the field, QLD had to completely smash NSW in order to take the game. Was always going to be a massive swing in calls at critical moments.

[JohnS]

It makes complete sense from a business point of view, need to make more money, strech it out, build it up, blah blah blah...

I hate that sport has become such a big business that is has lost its unpredictability. Even before the players took the field, QLD had to completely smash NSW in order to take the game. Was always going to be a massive swing in calls at critical moments.

Honestly, I feel exactly the same way.