So now that we can compare...Who Wins? 2002 Vs 2013

[IRoosterManI]

This was a match up many here had well before the GF win , so now that we have won the comp and now the WCC if they were to meet on field in a 3 game series who would take it?


2002



1 Luke Phillips
2 Brett Mullins
3 Shannon Hegarty
4 Justin Hodges
5 Anthony Minichiello
6 Brad Fittler (C)
7 Craig Wing
8 Jason Cayless
9 Simon Bonetti
10 Peter Cusack
11 Adrian Morley
12 Craig Fitzgibbon
13 Luke Ricketson

Bench:
Chris Flannery
Bryan Fletcher
Michael Crocker
Andrew Lomu

Coach: Ricky Stuart


2013



1 Anthony Minichiello (c)
2 Daniel Tupou
3 Michael Jennings
4 Shaun Kenny-Dowall
5 Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
6 James Maloney
7 Mitchell Pearce
8 Jared Waerea-Hargreaves
9 Jake Friend
10 Sam Moa
11 Aidan Guerra
12 Sonny Bill Williams
13 Frank-Paul Nuuausala

Bench:
Daniel Mortimer
Mitchell Aubusson
Boyd Cordner
Luke O'Donnell

Coach: Trent Robinson

[stsae]

How could Mini play against Mini???

[Johnny.]

How could Mini play against Mini???

Mothman can do anything, he''s that good.

[Guest]

1 Phillips V Mini
6 Freddy V Maloney
7 Wing V Pearce
9 Bonetti V Friend

So hard to split the spine. Would choose Phillips (just. his 2002 form was impeccable), Freddy, Pearce and Friend. They say the spine is the most important part of the team, and it's too close to separate

[TheBigFella]

The only thing that puts me just in favour of the 2013 squad is the silverware.

[Guest]

Other than Friend the 02 spine is much better.

Anyway I thought we were stronger in 03. The start of that season we were untouchable Mini went to the back and was on fire so was Hodges before the injury. Then guys like Fitzy, Moz, Wing, Cayless and Crocker emerged as probably the best players in the comp in their positions.

[IRoosterManI]

Other than Friend the 02 spine is much better.

Anyway I thought we were stronger in 03. The start of that season we were untouchable Mini went to the back and was on fire so was Hodges before the injury. Then guys like Fitzy, Moz, Wing, Cayless and Crocker emerged as probably the best players in the comp in their positions.

i agree we were stronger but this is the 2 grandfinal winning teams. who wins in a 3 game series?

[ism22]

FWIW I think the 2013 team are a world better than the 2002 team. These are the only two premierships I've lived to see... we only won in 2002 because we drew a weak opponent and weren't able to play the Doggies (who would have thrashed us and well... DID in 2004 using a mysteriously similar team).

2013 Was a much tougher season... Souths, Manly and Melbourne all had dream teams. So did we and we were better all season... CONSISTENTLY!

We shut out a lot of teams and proved a lot of people wrong. Watch 2002 again... the GF was REALLY against Brisbane. Awesome game but ooooh so slow compared with today.

Freddy came back during the 9s and showed he's still better than Pearce/Maloney. Him and Mini are the only 2 timeless players from 2002.

STILL... we now have the Freddy and Johns of today. I think QLD's success takes away from the greatness of us having the Origin halves pairing. I don't think Gronk and Thurston are mecessarily better halves.


---


1 Luke Phillips < Mini... Luke who? Mini is a club legend.
2 Brett Mullins < Tupou... Tupou's quickly becoming a freak of the game.
3 Shannon Hegarty < Jennings. IMO Jennings is currectly the best centre in the game. It was a farce that Tate (go back to 2002 Brisbane v Roosters... who lost tem the game? TATE!!) was selected ahead of him for Australia. QLD old boys club... the pirate king is THE man!!
4 Justin Hodges > SKD... then again SKD performed in the one game where he needed to last year!! Did Hodges? I think he's over-rated TBH...
5 Anthony Minichiello < RTS at that particular stage in his career. How do you compare? Mini went on to be the world's best FB... he was just another winger at this stage. RTS plays for NZ and is highly rated.
6 Brad Fittler (C) > Maloney... no better 6s in history.
7 Craig Wing ~= Pearce people will disagree but Wing's career was up and down. Pearce will win Origin for NSW this year and will go down as a solid half in years to come.
8 Jason Cayless < JWH.
9 Simon Bonetti < Friend. Friend's a machine and would be the Origin #9 if it wasn't taken by Cam Smith. Bonetti was never much...
10 Peter Cusack < Moa... although start of the season nobody had heard of Moa, he is now THE man.
11 Adrian Morley < ... lets put Cords there. And that's not to disrespect Guerra (who is amazing). Just putting it out there that we have a NSW/Australia back rower at #11 who will go down in the books as a Fitzy IMO.
12 Craig Fitzgibbon < SBW. There's 1 or 2 players who are better than Peter Garrett, SBW is one!
13 Luke Ricketson > LOD

2002 Did have some better players, but 2013 we just had so much more talent. We also didn't win due to a technicality/scrape our way through... we killed it all season!

A lot of the 2013 players are young and yet to become greats. Give it 5 years... when NSW is winning Origin again and a bunch of our players have teamed up to win a world cup, the 2013 team will undeniably be the better team.

[Guest]

Defence wins games, both attacks are great. 2013 "team" wins on defence!

[novice chook]

The premiership in 2013 was a complete team effort, meanwhile the 2002 triumph was more about individual brilliance at the right time.

The 2013 team had a 'never say die' attitude so that when they dug a hole for themselves they were able to climb their way out with the support of each other. No task was insurmountable on the field.

NC

[stsae]

Mothman can do anything, he''s that good.

Pre Biv or Post Biv maaaaaaaaaaaate???

I wonder what the great Newmans take would be on this subject.

[Tommy Smith]

Are people trolling about the 2002 team?

The Dogs would have smashed us? Even though we smashed them in 2003? It took our worst performance in 2 years in the 04 GF for them just to scrape home.

They weren't about individuals. It was a team based brutal defensive effort that led the way.

This thread just shows how quickly people forget. They were an awesome team that were a juggernaught from rnd 20 or so onwards.

Who can forget when they beat the minor premier warriors about 44 nil.

[stsae]

Are people trolling about the 2002 team?

The Dogs would have smashed us? Even though we smashed them in 2003? It took our worst performance in 2 years in the 04 GF for them just to scrape home.

They weren't about individuals. It was a team based brutal defensive effort that led the way.

This thread just shows how quickly people forget. They were an awesome team that were a juggernaught from rnd 20 or so onwards.

Who can forget when they beat the minor premier warriors about 44 nil.

Mate don't get so fired up. Comparisons between teams only a year apart are invalid.

As the old saying goes, opinions are like arseholes, everyone's got one.

Some are just bigger than others.

[Guest]

Are people trolling about the 2002 team?

The Dogs would have smashed us? Even though we smashed them in 2003? It took our worst performance in 2 years in the 04 GF for them just to scrape home.

They weren't about individuals. It was a team based brutal defensive effort that led the way.

This thread just shows how quickly people forget. They were an awesome team that were a juggernaught from rnd 20 or so onwards.

Who can forget when they beat the minor premier warriors about 44 nil.

Were you old enough to see the 2002 team?

[Tommy Smith]

Pfft that's not me fired up.

Just mildly annoyed!

The 2002 team, especially guys like Diamond, deserve more respect.

I'll leave it at that