Mad Monday - Origin in Melbourne (2012)

State Of The Origins has come and gone people.

Paul Callen, captain of the New Zealand Blues and his hip pocket team mate from the Cumunulla Sharks, Dave Carney, were unable to overcome the power of the mighty team from somewhere else that they were playing against.

There were some big talking points obviously, which I'll dissect for you now.

The Inglis try - Somehow referees can now read thought processes by players and they somehow read Farah's mind saying "I will try and kick the ball loose" and then after that incident, they read Inglis' mind saying "I do not want to touch the ball yet" when it hit his forearm, going forward before he scored the try.

Now thats technology.

The Cronky Bird tackle - Cronk landed on his back. If thats a spear tackle, then the game may as well stop being played now, because as soon as you land on your back. Penalty. This isn't even using the old "show more lenience in origin" belief either. That was a good strong legal tackle.

The Flying MJ incident - Jennings, mate, you're an idiot. You should have walked up slowly at first, pushed a few people and then started swinging when you got closer. I believe Jennings deserved his ten in the bin, but at the same time, Scott's action is what started the whole incident, so Queensland should have been penalised. The refs ended up telling all the kids "Starting fights is cool, but running in to finish them is bad."

The Hodges Mule Kick - I've not heard much about this but there was an incident where Robbie Farah had tackled Justin Hodges, once complete, Farah was sitting on the ground behind Hodges, who was about to play the ball. Hodges kicked back and hit Farah in the face with his boot, unprovoked, unneccessary and unnoticed by the refs.

Now, how did they determine that Hodges blatantly clear kick to Farah's mush was 'unintentional' but Farah's boot brushing the ball as Inglis went to score a try was considered 'intentional'. These two incidents clearly were the wrong way around.

New South Wales clearly copped the wrong end of some refereeing blunders. Whether it would have helped the Blues get a win, who knows, but thats what you want in Origin, uncertainty over who will win. You want players to determine the games result, not the most basic of refereeing errors made by two kids with whistles.

So Captain Callen, David and his boys have all retreated back to New Zealand.

But they'll be back!