Phil Gould Says The New South Wales Blues Are Too ‘Pantherised’
"You're not playing club football, you're playing the best around, you're playing Origin, you need a little bit more than that."
Phil Gould has come out and said that the NSW team lost in game one because they were too 'Pantherised'.
If you spoke to any Blues fan before Wednesday night's Origin game, it was the Penrith players that were going win it for them.
Their talent and combinations were the main reasons the Blues would succeed.
It was almost like the rest of the NSW team didn't even need to turn up - Cleary, Luai, Yeo, To'o, Crichton and Martin had it all sorted.
Those same supporters are coming to grips with their 16-10 loss to the Maroons, and Phil Gould believes the selection of six the Panthers for NSW proved to be detrimental.
The style and structure adopted by the entire team, seemed to be built around the Premiers.
"NSW was very structured. To be honest, it was probably a little bit too much 'Pantherised,'" Gould explained on his Six Tackles With Gus podcast for Wide World of Sports.
"You're not playing club football, you're playing the best around, you're playing Origin, you need a little bit more than that.
"You need a little bit more to your game and a little bit more strategy coming into that then just a club football mentality because it's a nice combination and nice structure."
Arguably one of the best halfbacks running around, NSW fans believed Nathan Cleary would guide their team to an easy Origin one victory.
Munster and his men were all over him on Wednesday night, and Cleary was completely suffocated.
Not being able to play his normal game frustrated the young Panther and affected his kicking game.
Gus believes Cleary's style was too obvious and he became an easy target.
"Cleary plays a predictable role in his football, so they were able to put some pressure on him, understanding that he has kicked them to death in other Origins previously," Gus said.
"I just thought NSW came at them with more of a club strategy, a club style of football. The longer the game went, you could see Queensland's defence getting more and more confident in what they were doing."
Featured Image Credit: SuppliedTopics: Rugby League, nrl, State of Origin, Australia, Phil Gould
Danielle Smith