REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Thursday May 25. 2006

WHAT hoodoo? That had been Queensland’s cry all week but once again they reinforced the state’s biggest problem with trying to emerge victorious in an Origin series.

They just couldn’t win in Sydney. The Maroons hadn’t won a game since they started playing at Telstra Stadium in 1999, and for the second time in two years they lost by a lastminute field goal as NSW took a 1-0 lead in the series with a 17-16 victory.

They might have drawn the game with a late flurry that was broken by a Brett Finch field goal, but it wasn’t a convincing performance from Queensland.

The Queensland fire that coach Mal Meninga tried to instil by bringing Maroon legend after Maroon legend into the pre-game camp burned about as bright as a $1.50 cigarette lighter for the first hour.

Even when NSW winger Eric Grothe, filthy at being stripped of the ball, threw a right at Justin Hodges there was not enough reaction.

Trevor Gillmeister had said during the week that the players were being too nice to their opponents.

Well, when they had the chance to grab someone and knock the stuffing out of them, and try and change the tempo of the game, hardly a player went to Hodges’ defence.

Queensland scored from the penalty, but it always looked to be never enough against a team that rose to the occasion.

Apart from Carl Webb, Petero Civoniceva and surprising bench rookie Nate Myles, the Queensland team showed little of the required spark until they got desperate late in the match.