Chris Rattue provides four thoughts on last night's opening State of Origin clash in Sydney.
1) Cooper Cronk deserves even more praise than he gets. He's in the Big Four - Cronk, Johnathan Thurston, Cameron Smith and Billy Slater - but tends to comes in fourth. The famously obsessive Cronk is not the flashiest halfback you will ever see - he's more of a ruthless metronome. Cronk won the game for Queensland with a clever try and field goal. Cronk gets limelight, but maybe not enough of it.
2) The game felt flat (from my perspective) and it's hard to understand why. An 80,000 crowd, a close scoreline...and yet the magic wasn't there. Just like players, some matches have the x-factor and some don't. This one didn't.
3) New South Wales need a change in the halves. Trent Hodkinson and Mitchell Pearce have their strengths, but they don't feel like players with the winning Origin touch. However, coach Laurie Daley says Hodkinson and Pearce will stay.
4) It still hurts, the Kiwis missing out on James Tamou. The Blues prop was outstanding in the first half.
