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Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 3118366, member: 1899"] It just highlights the difference between great players and legendary players. So many players in Lockyer's position would have wilted underneath the pressure and it isn't because they're bad players, it's just that they were dealt bad hands or another legendary talent came along who was younger and happened to be in the right place and time to take over. But how many great players, getting towards the end of their career after competing in grand finals and rep matches for ten seasons start to slow down? I'd say the vast majority, throw in a major positional change and it would have derailed most careers. Now when the criticism came out against Lockyer, it wasn't unwarranted. Lockyer was the form player of 2005 and had the opportunity to nail his credentials in the State of Origin series only for Andrew Johns to come in and not only win the series but flog Queensland who had been dominant. I do think there were a couple of benefits Johns had over Lockyer which didn't necessarily make it a fair fight, but individually it was clear who the better player was. So Lockyer was coming off of that disappointment, he suffered a couple of losses where he was no longer making a huge impact and right when the Broncos needed him most he went down with injury. By the time he came back, the wheels had well and truly come off the Broncos season and he was playing through injury. Still he was no longer performing to the standards he set in the 2004 Tri Series and the first half of 2005 so pressure started to mount. Then to open 2006, Lockyer had the worst performance of his career. It was his first game back after I believe it was a serious ankle injury at the 2005 Tri-Series and he was underdone, but not only was he ineffective, he was a liability and the worst player on the field. That's when the pitchforks came out initially and calls for him to return to fullback started to save his career which was too much but he really had to get back on the horse and fast. Things went quiet in the lead up to Origin I. Brisbane started to win enough games to take the pressure off of Lockyer who by about Round 7 was starting to player as well you would expect. That went right out the window with Origin I. This was supposed to be the series that Queensland would win and win comfortably but they had a horrific first half where they gave NSW a 14-0 head-start and despite chasing them down to make it 16-all with only minutes to go, Brett Finch stepped up and became the unlikely hero. Lockyer was far from the worst player on the field, but it was just another example of Lockyer not being good enough to close out a big game against Australian opponents. It was something he hadn't really achieved since Game II 2004 and whatever goodwill he achieved from that win was completely washed up in the Game III drubbing. In truth, a lot of the disappointment of Game I came down to the Cowboys players who were over-awed by the occassion. JT-Bowen was the focal point of the attack, but they struggled to make a dent and Mat Scott who was one of the form players in the competition leading up to Game I fell off badly after this game and it took him really years to recover. Despite the disappointment, Lockyer's form remained strong in the build up to Game II guiding Brisbane to three really tough wins against the Bulldogs, Warriors in NZ and Sea Eagles at Brookie. Then Mal changed the point of attack so that it was based more around Lockyer and Karmichael's combination and the Queensland attack just clicked better from the get go. NSW didn't even play that badly, Queensland just completely and utterly out-classed them and earned all of their 30 points. That win brought Queensland back from the brink but they still had to win the series. It seemed like everything conspired against Queensland around this time. Brisbane suffered a heart-breaking loss against St George which saw a lot of players sidelined including Karmichael Hunt. Hodges' hamstrings were acting up and after a strong performance in Game II he wasn't going to be right for Game III and Steve Bell suffered a broken cheekbone playing for Manly. The situation was so bad they had to bring Wesser into play on the wing and call Josh Hannay up from the Young Guns to play in the centres. Queensland were well and truly down on attacking options and to make matters worse, just about everything that could go wrong did for Queensland. It started with a length of the field intercept against JT which brought NSW back into the game. Then they had a try taken off them and then NSW scored two controversial tries of their own to take an undeserved lead at a critical point of the game. Without the attacking weapons, it appeared like it was going to be the same old story against Lockyer. He just couldn't get Queensland across the line and despite having opportunity after opportunity to breach the line, it seemed like NSW were going to hold on with 10 to go. Then the tide started to turn, Tahu went down with an injury and once JT put Tate into some space, Brent found himself in a total mismatch against Menzies and summed the situation up to bring Queensland back from the dead. Then in a fitting moment Lockyer swooped on a loose pass, broke through and scored one of the more famous tries in Origin history. Rabs shouted, "They can't take that off him, they won't take that off him" and while he was referring to the referees it could have easily been squared at every critic. Finally Lockyer had cemented himself as a legend of the sport. It was just the beginning for what would be one of the most remarkable seasons in Rugby League history and an amazing dynasty for the Maroons. Lockyer had come up with such an emphatic answer to the critics that he had well and truly weaved himself into the tapestry of Rugby League Immortality. [IMG]https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/d194acb2702bd089dd51612e653e1b69[/IMG] [/QUOTE]

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