State of Origin 2 Preview
There is something a little more special about a Sunday night State of Origin as the Maroons and the Blues take to Suncorp Stadium for a decisive Game 2 on the back of one of the most dominant displays from the Blues in game 1. I was confident in the Maroons using a spirited North Queensland crowd to lift them, however the fire power of the Blues backline was something else to deliver the record win. Let’s hope for another cracking game this weekend.
After the demolition in game one, the Blues find themselves red hot favourites to claim the second game, with the line being set at -14.5 points and while it may come back to haunt me, I can’t see Queensland getting close to the Blues on Sunday. From the first set, the Blues were all business, rolling through the Maroons backline, and the eventuating pressure led to plenty of width on the edges for Latrell Mitchell and Tom Trbojevic to explore, with coach Brad Fittler giving them a license to go away from the typical structure of club sides, and go looking for the ball. This often resulted in mis-matches against tired defence, with many of their tries coming from line breaks on the back of dominant sets and as scary as it is, the younger players like Jerome Luai, Brian To’o and Liam Martin are only going to be better for experience – a worrying sign for Paul Green’s side.
The only real move of significance is Daniel Saifiti replacing Jake Trobjevic at prop and Angus Chrichton coming onto the bench, which further strengthens their edge attack, while the Maroons have chosen to mix things up with Reece Walsh at fullback and become the youngest Origin debutant since Ben Ikin in 1995.
Backing the heavy favourites to cover has proven very profitable throughout the course of the NRL season due to speed of play favouring these highly skilled outfits, and after the Queensland defence failed to shut down the chemistry between Turbo and Mitchell in the backline, it’s hard to see this Maroons outfit, which would prefer a slower style of game, getting close to the Blues. The fact the Maroons haven’t lost at Suncorp since 2017 is obviously worth factoring in, but this still looks like an enormous task for Queensland in front of their home fans, a guarantee considering the shutting of the border, and the Blues line looks like a terrific bet. Additionally, Blues fullback had a quiet game by his standards, primarily due to the dominance of the other members of his backline, so look to him to stamp his authority on the series as he has done many times before.
Recommended Bets: Blues -14.5
Anytime tryscorer; James Tedesco $2.10
