Notepad: Origin Thoughts & Bulldogs Attack Indicator

What's on the watchlist this week?

• State of Origin Game 2

  • That Bench Rotation…

  • Another Scrum Try

• (Premium) NRL Analysis: The Indicator To The Bulldogs Attack

State of Origin Game 2

We’re going to a decider in the 2026 State of Origin series. As a neutral, it’s all I could really ask for if we’re going to decimate the NRL competition for two months.

Again, the New South Wales Blues struggled to impress. Mark Nawaqanitawase’s on-brand debut produced points, but they otherwise struggled to excite with the ball as a team. The Queensland Maroons, on the other hand, piled them up in the second half after talking the sting out of the game in the first.

The Blues dominated field position throughout the opening exchanges. We heard more than once from commentators of the blue persuasion that they were “on top” across most of the first half. However, the Maroons will have gone into the sheds with far more confidence only 12-8 down despite 57% of the first 40 minutes being spent in their own half.

As the possession and territory evened up, the Blues didn’t have an answer as the Maroons made it look easy at times on their way to an emphatic 44-24 win.

Two things stand out as key takeaways from Game 2 with Game 3 in mind:

That Bench Rotation…

What can be said about Laurie Daley’s New South Wales Blues rotation on Wednesday night has already been said.

Playing Mitch Barnett 24 minutes including a stint of four minutes, Cameron Murray only 43 minutes with an eight-minute stint, and Addin Fonua-Blake nine minutes in total is mind-boggling. This all came after the strange decision to drop Haumole Olakau’atu in the first place.

The Blues always have such a talented squad. Getting the right combination on the field for the most effective amount of time seems to be their issue.

It’s a guessing game trying to pick what Daley and the Blues will do for the decider, but I have a few ideas:

• Murray needs to play more. If long minutes are an issue for Olakau’atu (who I’d be recalling), Murray can spend a lot more time on the field between the middle and edge, if not the full 80 minutes.

• Ethan Strange was bought onto the field to bring a spark, but that could instead be Addin Fonua-Blake’s footwork at the back end of the first half. A spark doesn’t need to be scoring the try or throwing the final pass. The momentum Fonua-Blake can generate through the middle can be just as influencial on a match.

• Reece Robson has come along as more of a threat out of dummy half this season but, again, if Daley was looking to create moments, working Api Koroisau into the game had to be the play. Whether it’s Koroisau or Blayke Brailey in Game 3, the Blues need more out of dummy half.

I can’t rule New South Wales out for Game 3. Whether or not Daley is putting players to sleep before games or not, the 19 players won’t need any motivating. The squad will still be stacked regardless of the reactionary changes he makes and playing in a decider in Brisbane provides more energy than any pre-game speech.

Rugby league is determined by momentum more than ever, and if the Blues can start well and hush the Suncorp crowd, it won’t matter what is coming down on the radio from the coaches box.

Another Scrum Try

Where the Blues struggle for ideas, Billy Slater is cooking up scrum plays.

To be fair to Nathan Cleary and Kotoni Staggs, they couldn’t have defended this much better themselves. Still, the understanding and execution on the Queensland side paints a picture.

Cleary puts the sort of pressure on Sam Walker that would put an end to the play if it was just about any other halfback in rugby league. Meanwhile, Staggs does a good job to get off the lead and force Ponga sideways. He’s not able to make the tackle as Ponga beats him for speed, but he’s not helped by Mark Nawaqanitawase on his outside either.

It’s another example of how the Maroons all seem to be reading from the same sheet as the Blues struggle for cohesion. We saw them play to points and target cues in Game 1, they created a moment of magic from a set piece in Game 2, and will no doubt have something up their sleeve for Game 3.

NRL Analysis: The Indicator To The Bulldogs Attack

This isn’t a Lachlan Galvin hit piece. I, for one, see enough in him to be a potential long term #7 at the club.

What appears to be an issue in the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs attack right now is the predictability and lack of cohesion. The Parramatta Eels are the worst defensive team in the NRL at the moment, and are on track to be considered one of the worst ever without significant improvement over the second half of the season. Still, they limited the Bulldogs to only 14 points despite mountains of possession for Cameron Ciraldo’s side.

You could hear the Eels defence name dropping “Galvin!” in the broadcast throughout their Round 14 game. He’s recording the most touches per game of any halfback in the competition. Where Galvin goes, you can trust that the ball is going there more often than not.

Consistently setting the defence for one player makes it easy to defend the line. So much of how a team defends a particular play comes down to defensive splits. How may either side of the ruck, should the fullback plug in, do we need four down the shortside or can we add one more to the long side.

One particular sequence, where you can hear that Galvin is the focus for the Eels, sums up the stale nature of the Bulldogs attack.

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