Nearly Won By

OK, I realise that the Origin circus has been and gone, but I miss it.  I think that it is the funniest time of the season, and should be expanded to a best of five.  Lucky for me I was clearing out the cupboard at Vandalay Industries yesterday and came across this missive by our esteemed sports reporter Mick Oxwollen from the last Origin series.  Over to you Mike...

"Mal Meninga said in the press conference that he was proud of the way his team played, they made some mistakes and paid the price, and that he would not be offering any excuses for the loss.

In his press conference Ricky Stewart heralded the win as the start of a new era for NSW in Origin showing none of the delusions of grandeur we expected from the supercoach.
He also revealed that he wants his players to stand down from regular season games for the next origin, thus preparing the way for his excuse why he lost game 3.
And I hope you are sitting down cos I am going to let Ricky share with you a revelation (via Gus “biased commentary, what biased commentary?” Gould) that will blow your mind! Blow it clean out of your skull and change the way you see the world. I’ll hand over to Foxsports and the great man as I don’t think I can do it justice

Ricky had also told his players of a remark former NSW coach Phil Gould had delivered to him during the week.
"Gus told me they don't put on the trophy that NSW nearly won it, they put the winner," Stuart said.

Either that is the most ridiculous line ever or it’s been that long since Ricky has seen the trophy that he had to ask Gus what the trophy looked like.

Mike Oxwollen



Thanks for that Mike, great work as usual.  And I think you will find that Gus is right about that one, as it clearly says QUEENSLAND 2011 VICTORS on the Origin cup.