Rigged!
Some think the State of Origin league series is getting tired, but I for one will never get sick of the sight of two Australian sportsteams bashing the shit out of each other. The only shame is there has to be a winner.
But after last night's game, I'm about to hop in the bandwagon of the conspiracy theorists who reckon some sporting contests are rigged. Think about it. We're fed the line that these two teams absolutely HATE each other. Then favoured home team start off like a house on fire and score heaps of points and the game looks over at halftime. Then underdog away team stage amazing recovery only to be denied in the last minute. Of course, the matchwinning points are scored by a player who was not even in the side 24 hours before the game and only played because of an "injury in training".
Hollywood couldn't script this better. And it's not a once-only occurence - it happens time and time again, year after year.
There are other clues. Before the game, a player interviewed was asked a question about whether State Of Origin was getting tired and he replied along the lines of "Maaaate, there's always stories coming out of Origin, maaate" (I think I might have missed a mate or two there). Of course there's always stories coming out, the whole thing is one big book of fiction.
Phil Gould pregame effused that the NSW boys would not be affected by the injury to their halfback 'cause at training they just ignored it and got on with the job. Not surprising, given they read about the injury in the script handed out 3 days before. Danny Buderus, who is the kind of guy who if he saw a sick swallow on the side of the road would take it to the SPCA, just happens to be the one to take a swing at an opponent that costs his side a penalty and allows the game to be tied with 3 minutes to go.
It's rigged. So from a betting point of view, put your house on Queensland to win Game 2 in 3 weeks time.
But after last night's game, I'm about to hop in the bandwagon of the conspiracy theorists who reckon some sporting contests are rigged. Think about it. We're fed the line that these two teams absolutely HATE each other. Then favoured home team start off like a house on fire and score heaps of points and the game looks over at halftime. Then underdog away team stage amazing recovery only to be denied in the last minute. Of course, the matchwinning points are scored by a player who was not even in the side 24 hours before the game and only played because of an "injury in training".
Hollywood couldn't script this better. And it's not a once-only occurence - it happens time and time again, year after year.
There are other clues. Before the game, a player interviewed was asked a question about whether State Of Origin was getting tired and he replied along the lines of "Maaaate, there's always stories coming out of Origin, maaate" (I think I might have missed a mate or two there). Of course there's always stories coming out, the whole thing is one big book of fiction.
Phil Gould pregame effused that the NSW boys would not be affected by the injury to their halfback 'cause at training they just ignored it and got on with the job. Not surprising, given they read about the injury in the script handed out 3 days before. Danny Buderus, who is the kind of guy who if he saw a sick swallow on the side of the road would take it to the SPCA, just happens to be the one to take a swing at an opponent that costs his side a penalty and allows the game to be tied with 3 minutes to go.
It's rigged. So from a betting point of view, put your house on Queensland to win Game 2 in 3 weeks time.
Labels: post mortems
posted by Rob Crawford at 11:36 AM
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