QLD Players Player

[The Marshall]

As a QLD Rooster I want to acknowledge the wonderful debut series by our captain Jake Friend culminating in him winning the QLD players player award for the series. Considering how long he had to wait for a chance he made the most of the moment. Well done Jake on your achievement.

[John Corey]

Says a lot about the ppl, mostly media who were bagging him and wanted him dropped. These 'experts' forget that defence is 50% of the game.

[Jacks Fur Coat]

Thanks the Marshall....I mentioned this in another discussion with website links, but it does deserve its own thread.

[ChookMaster]

Speaking of QLD, how about the comment today from Walters about any player with the last name of “ smith “ are will be on the radar of the broncos... we might have a fight on our hands for billy... Lol jokes aside what a way to shut up the critics congrats nug.

[ism22]

As a QLD Rooster I want to acknowledge the wonderful debut series by our captain Jake Friend culminating in him winning the QLD players player award for the series. Considering how long he had to wait for a chance he made the most of the moment. Well done Jake on your achievement.

Yeah I hate QLD and Bennett but for him to get player's player (I loved his form) and some massive praise from Wayne Bennett is huge respect for our systems/culture.

Not only has he slotted in for Cam Smith (in a series where the media wanted Grant to be the hero), he won and was one of their best players. Outside NSW winning, that's the best result I coulda hoped for. Woulda s*cked for him to have been thrown in with a rubbish team, had a barry and then been dumped from contention with somebody like Grant taking the role from him (then failing next year, by which time Friend's over it...etc).

[ism22]

Says a lot about the ppl, mostly media who were bagging him and wanted him dropped. These 'experts' forget that defence is 50% of the game.

I reckon defence is 80% of any invasion game.

Different sport but my social soccer team (all dudes about my age) just took out a 1st dev comp at our local uni that was pretty packed due to COVID (no other comps were run). We played our finals yesterday against ANU's #1 squad (all youngsters from soccer backgrounds). Long story short, I basically just ran after the ball like a headless chook (was fitter than them all + still have my speed), stood between the goals/players, spoiled the ball to prevent goals and made lotsa cheeky comments to put people off their game. Our opposition was full of guys who describe themselves as 'semi-professional' (okay all soccer players are 'professional' as there's so many goddamn leagues), who boasted we'd be 'easy' getting sent off for chucking tantrums and stuff because they thought our defence was unfair.

Not saying I'm a great team sport player (I s*ck at soccer) but a lot of players who see themselves as being in contention for professional teams seem to think they can get away with just having really good touch of the ball (enabling them to score from anywhere if nobody's marking them). I think it's fair to say I gave 'em a touch of the kinda fitness/speed one would expect from a pro defender (at bare minimum - I'm in my 40's + have had a rough adult life), without anywhere near the same skills and these fukking 'I get paid $300 a game to play for ANU' players completely buckled. IMO at any level of sport, the biggest difference between the grade up and where people are at is that the defence gets tighter at every step. NSW by far had the better attack, but QLD stopped them from using it. Friend played a large part in that, which IMO clearly made him the 'player's player' because all his team mates woulda felt his impact on the outcome (even if commentators could only see Grant scoring some random try).

[Johnny Tobin]

Says a lot about the ppl, mostly media who were bagging him and wanted him dropped. These 'experts' forget that defence is 50% of the game.

At the time (early/mid 2018) he was playing like a busted. This is great recognition, especially as everyone seems to have written off his Origin career for Harry Grant. Jake is tailor-made for origin.

[The Lip]

Oh - I thought Jake was past it.......

[zac]

good things come to those who wait lol. makes it harder for them not to pick him next year

[Mad_Rabid_Rooster]

Good on him, a shining light amongst the disappointment from a Blues fan's perspective.

[redwhiteblue]

Good on him, a shining light amongst the disappointment from a Blues fan's perspective.

I've decided my Origin colour is purple - one for each of my parents. I'm going to watch the whole series over my Christmas break as I always did say to Jake that I would support Qld again only if he played for them. That was such a long time ago and I'm glad he got to do this as he always wanted. He always wanted to be coached by Wayne too he told me so I'm happy for his sake that something good happened in a year most of us will want to forget for many reasons. Great photo of him with the shield too and you can see by the big smile on his face how much it means to him.