{"id":399349,"date":"2024-06-02T23:01:38","date_gmt":"2024-06-02T23:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=399349"},"modified":"2024-06-03T01:06:24","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T01:06:24","slug":"water-the-pitch-down-joey-urges-sneaky-nsw-ploy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=399349","title":{"rendered":"'Water the pitch down': Joey urges sneaky NSW ploy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Johns<\/a> is praying for Sydney's wild weather to continue come Wednesday night when the 2024 State of Origin series<\/a> kicks off, revealing he believes the drizzly conditions will create a thrilling matchup.<\/p>\n

When you add the uncertainty of wet weather football into the high-intensity arena that is Origin football, a "dogfight" battle is bound to occur, according to Johns.<\/p>\n

A slight chance of rain is forecast for Sydney for game one, with rainy conditions proving to be a major game-changer on multiple occasions in Origin football's history.<\/p>\n

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"Game one is traditionally a low-scoring and tight game. Especially at Accor if it gets slippery," Johns said on Wide World of Sports' Immortal Behaviour<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

"I think (Sydney) is supposed to get a lot of rain on [the weekend] – maybe [we] need to talk to the groundsman and water the pitch down – make it a real dogfight.<\/p>\n

"It's intriguing how they all play."<\/p>\n

With the Maroons<\/a> boasting a blistering backline, with pace to burn from Reece Walsh<\/a>, Valentine Holmes<\/a>, and Xavier Coates\ufeff, Johns fears that the Blues<\/a> will be unable to compete against the speed of the Maroons in perfect conditions.<\/p>\n

"I think if it's a fast open game, we [the Blues] haven't got the team to outscore the Queensland team," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Greg<\/p>\n

"If you look at the Queensland back five – Reece Walsh, he is a superstar and is lightning fast, Val Holmes, Xavier Coates, 'the Hammer' [Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow], and Murray Taulagi – all impressive. That is a scary team."<\/p>\n

Johns revealed that he believes the Blues have what it takes "on paper" but are lacking the same speed and game-breaking ability as Slater's side.<\/p>\n

The rugby league Immortal declared that NSW still has the upper hand in other areas.<\/p>\n

"We've got the power runners and the real ruggedness but we don't have the out-and-about speed or high-end x-factor," the former Blues captain said.<\/p>\n

"On paper, (the Blues) haven't got the points. If it is a point scoring shootout, we haven't got that, where Queensland does.<\/p>\n

\"Reuben<\/p>\n

"What we do have is ruggedness, \ufefftoughness, and more power.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"The huge advantage for Queensland is the amount of time they've spent together on the field. They've got a really lightweight middle (pack).<\/p>\n

"Pat Carrigan, lightweight. \ufeffReuben Cotter, only 95 kilos – that's unheard of in the front-row. Lindsay [Collins], he is about 102-103 kilos.<\/p>\n

"(Queensland) do have a lot of speed but we [the Blues] have Payne Haas. We have the size and power of Liam Martin, Angus Crichton, and Spencer Leniu off the bench."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Johns is praying for Sydney's wild weather to continue come Wednesday night when the 2024 State of Origin series kicks off, revealing he believes […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":399353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=399349"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":399358,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399349\/revisions\/399358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/399353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=399349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=399349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=399349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}