How New South Wales supersub Connor Watson learned to become a State of Origin matchwinner
Connor Watson still isn't quite sure of how the pass happened, he's just glad that it did.
The New South Wales utility put his stamp on another Origin as he latched onto a Zac Lomax pass close to the line, twisted his way through four Queensland defenders to pop a miracle ball up for Dylan Edwards to score the try that wrapped up Game I for the Blues on Wednesday night.
It was a great show of skill and desire, albeit one Watson didn't get to see finished given he was trapped under a pile of Maroons defenders as Edwards crashed over but the noise was unmistakable.
"When I threw that ball I didn't know what was going to happen and then I heard everyone cheering — far out, no way that just came off," Watson said.
"It was a bit of a fluke — Lowy (Zac Lomax) got me the ball, the line was so close even though I knew I wouldn't get there myself.
"I just tried to throw it up and Dyl, being a great fullback, was in support got it across the line."
It's the second Lang Park match in a row where Watson has come on fresh in the final stages of the match with the game in the balance and come up with a key play to steer the Blues home.
In last year's decider, when he also came on with 15 to go and the match in the balance, he dribbled an offload to Jarome Luai deep in his own half that gave the New South Wales five-eighth the space to take on the Queensland defence, slice through and find Bradman Best for the breakout try of the game.
Watson's versatility opened the door for him to become part of the New South Wales side but through three games it's his impact late in matches that's come to the fore.
In 30 minutes of game time combined across his last two matches, the Roosters hooker has made more of an impact than some players do in their Origin careers.
It isn't easy to sit on the bench for over an hour and wait for your number to be called.
It takes a lot of patience, both to ride it out and to not be too frantic when you come on in an effort to make the most of it.
The latter was something Watson struggled with in the early stages of his career but has now mastered, especially for New South Wales.
Like all good bench matchwinners, Watson understands that 15 minutes can be more than enough time to find a winning play.
"Early in my career, and I had this conversation with some of the younger guys at the Roosters this year, I'd chase it almost too much because when you get little time you want to make as much of an impact as possible," Watson said.
"But bring energy, putting yourself in different positions and those opportunities will come, you don't need to force them.
"When I was young I'd go on and try to go crazy, but you can burn out doing that.
"Coming on with 15 minutes to go is still plenty of time to make an impact, you just have to trust that opportunity will come.
"I was itching to get out there and it can take a while but it's worth the wait.
"I focus on my defence and in attack I just push, do that and things will be alright."
After winning their first Lang Park decider in 30 years last series, making further history of their own was a focus for Laurie Daley's side in the lead up to Game I.
They've now won back-to-back games at Lang Park for the first time in over a quarter-century and a win in Perth in three weeks' time would be their fourth consecutive victory and give the state it's longest winning streak since 1996-97.
With Watson and his cohorts getting more and more acclimatised to the Origin furnace, it would take a brave punter to back against them doing so.
"Every Origin game I've played the physicality and the intensity of the contact stands out, that's what separates it from the NRL," Watson said.
"The ruck is a bit slower but the speed of the ball moving is higher, defences and attack moves faster. The more you play it, the more you understand what it's like.
"It's great to get a win up here, but there's still two games to go yet."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
18 minutes ago
- Perth Now
Veteran Storm coach Bellamy makes big coaching call
Craig Bellamy is set to continue as Melbourne coach for a 24th year, deciding against moving into a new role at the NRL club or retirement. Bellamy, 65, signed a unique five-year contract with the Storm in 2022 that allows him to decide each year whether he will continue in the head coach position. With Melbourne currently in fourth spot on the NRL ladder and among the title favourites, Bellamy will confirm at a press conference on Thursday morning before Storm training he has taken up the option to stay on next year. A regular visitor to the Gold Coast where he has a house and family, Bellamy has recently been linked with a move to the Titans at the end of his contract. He became Storm coach in 2003, leading the team to a semi-final in his first year. Since then the Storm have played in 21 finals series, winning the grand final on five occasions and the minor premiership eight times. Coaching 590 games, he has a winning percentage of 69.49 per cent. His enthusiasm for the game doesn't appear to be wavering, this year committing to additional duties as an advisor to NSW State of Origin coach Laurie Daley. Halfback Jarome Hughes said earlier this week Bellamy hadn't told the players about his future plans but hoped the coach would stay on for another season. "He's such a great coach and he's been such a great mentor for all of us players for so long - so the longer he stays the better," the Dally M Medallist said. "It's whatever's best for him and his family and whatever he wants to do, but I can't see him hanging it up too soon. "He'll get bored at home in his mansion at Albert Park so I'm sure he'll go around again." Melbourne host sixth-placed North Queensland on Friday night and will be back to full-strength after skipper Harry Grant and winger Xavier Coates sat out their Gold Coast win following State of Origin duty.
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Alan Kohler on making housing a bad investment
Sam Hawley: Interest rates might be coming down, but house prices are, once again, heading in the other direction. Given there is a major problem with housing affordability, and there are so many people who can't even afford to enter the market, why on earth is that? Today, the ABC's finance expert, Alan Kohler, on how conditions are ripe for a housing price surge, just as they were back in the early 2000s. In other words, why history's repeating. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal Land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Sam Hawley: Alan, interest rates are coming down and they could drop even further this year. So that should mean houses are more affordable for borrowers. But it's not that simple and you're going to explain to us why. Now, to do that, let's go back to the turn of the century. In 2001, the Reserve Bank was cutting rates just like it is now, wasn't it? Alan Kohler: Correct. Sam Hawley: What was going on back then? Alan Kohler: In 2001, the Reserve Bank cut interest rates six times that year. News report: Nervous anticipation for one of the Reserve Bank's most expected interest rate cuts, the sixth and last this year. Alan Kohler: And that was in response to the dot-com crash in the United States, which happened on basically in March of 2000. It continued for a while. The Nasdaq halved, more than halved. And there was a recession in the United States. The Reserve Bank was concerned that the Australian dollar would rise too much because of that, because obviously the US Federal Reserve was cutting interest rates in response to the recession. So the Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates in precaution, even though there was no recession in Australia. The economy did slow a bit. There was a bit of a fall in the share market, but not anything like what happened in the US. Sam Hawley: And the other thing that was happening back then was there was some pretty major policy changes, including the introduction of the capital gains discount and the return of a first home buyers grant. So just remind me of those policies at that time. Alan Kohler: Yes. So in 1999, the Howard Government appointed a business tax review committee, a panel of three businessmen to report on the business tax system. And what they wanted to do, what Howard and Costello wanted to do then, was to reduce the company tax rate from 36 to 30%. So they asked some businessmen to tell them whether that was a good idea. And well, they told them it was a great idea. Go ahead. But in the course of doing that, they also recommended a change in the capital gains tax regime so that instead of the capital gains tax being adjusted for inflation, they recommended a simple 50% discount, which the Howard Government duly applied. Peter Costello, then-Treasurer: Under the reforms which we announced today, a 50% reduction in the taxable gain, that is 50% of the gain is not taxable. Alan Kohler: And although it's the case that that didn't really change the amount of capital gains tax at the time because inflation was quite high. So actually, the 50% discount was roughly the same as the inflation adjustment for the average time that people were holding assets. What I think happened was that it changed the psychology of investing in property because everyone understands a discount, whereas nobody really gets inflation and certainly can't do it in their heads. Sam Hawley: So even if you don't understand capital gains tax, just understand that if it's 50% discount, that's a good thing. Alan Kohler: Exactly. Sam Hawley: If you're a homeowner, right? Alan Kohler: Precisely. And that added to negative gearing, which had been in place for a long time, to make investing in housing an attractive thing to do. The businessmen who recommended it thought that it would lead to Australia becoming a nation of share owners and buy the shares of their companies and drive the prices higher and lower their cost of capital. But that, in fact, didn't happen because people just want to invest in housing. And that's what happened. And as you say, also the Howard government reintroduced first homebuyer grants in 2000, which had been out of action for a while. The first homebuyer grant was in the 1960s under Menzies, but the Hawke-Keating government didn't do them and Howard reintroduced them. Sam Hawley: Okay, so rates are going down. There's these two major policy changes. And at the time, there was a simply huge rise in immigration. Alan Kohler: Exactly. And what caused that in around about 2005 was a change to the way foreign students were assessed in 2001. On July 1st, 2001, the system was changed. Up to that point, foreign students' visas were issued on the basis of either gazetted countries or non-gazetted countries. China and India were included in the non-gazetted countries and it was very difficult for students from those places to get a visa. After July 1st, 2001, that changed and became the same for everybody, which is the way it ought to be, of course. But that led eventually to a huge increase in students from China and India from the mid-2000s. And that led to a doubling and then tripling of net overseas migration into Australia. At the time. Sam Hawley: Wow. All right. So we get a pot and then we put all these things into it and we stir it around. So there's the capital gains tax, there's the first homeowner's grant, the rates are dropping and there's this massive increase in immigration. And when you stir it all around, you come out, Alan, with house prices rising. Alan Kohler: Yes. Well, so all of those four things that we've discussed added to demand from investors and migrants and so on. So there was a big increase in demand, but there was no response in supply. The government did nothing about increasing supply at the time. And the result was that for 10 years, between 2005 and 2015, there was a dire, big shortage of housing, an undersupply of housing for a decade, which really set the scene for a big increase in house prices. And what happened was that the house price to income ratio rose from between three to four times incomes, this is average incomes in 2000, to eight or nine times incomes at the end of that time. And that was a huge change in the way that housing related to people's incomes and also GDP of the there was a stop to immigration during the pandemic. And then post the pandemic, population growth has gone back to more than 2% per annum, which is what it was in the period after 2005. Sam Hawley: All right. So, Alan, that's the history of the skyrocketing house prices and how we ended up here. Now, today, interesting that we have exactly the same conditions. Alan Kohler: That's right. The Reserve Bank is cutting interest rates, probably not by six times, but by probably four or five times this year, possibly into next year as well. We've got first time buyer grants back on. We've got a big increase in migration. I mean, the Treasury forecast in the budget for this financial year, net overseas migration is 335,000. But in the first nine months of the year, it's already 360,000 and looks like being 400,000 this year. There's no targets on immigration, but there's a Treasury forecast and net overseas migration is going to well exceed the Treasury forecast. And of course, there's been no change in the capital gains tax discount because the Labor Party failed to win in 2016 and 2019, where that is their policy to reduce it 25%. All the conditions are in place for another rise in house prices. Sam Hawley: Exactly. So what are we seeing already and what do we expect to see then when it comes to the cost of housing in Australia? Alan Kohler: Between November last year and January this year, house prices actually fell by close to 1%. This is the national median price, having increased 17% in the previous 12 months or so. And since January, they've risen again by more than the increase in average wages over that period. News report: House prices are continuing to rise across the country, with experts predicting property values to grow between 6 and 10% by the end of the year. All the capitals rose more than 0.4 of a percent in May. That brings the national index 1.7% higher over the first five months of the year. Alan Kohler: House prices are already starting to rise in excess of the rise in incomes. And the thing is, you know, everyone says houses are unaffordable, which is kind of true, which you would think would mean house prices don't rise very much now, because if they're unaffordable already, then people can't afford them. But in fact, falling interest rates makes them more affordable. The determinant of affordability is the amount you can afford in terms of interest repayments or mortgage repayments. Really, a better measure might be time to save a deposit, because the problem is that deposits are becoming unreachable for a lot of people. So housing is becoming inaccessible. It's OK if you've got a deposit, because your parents have given you one, given you the money, but those who don't have access to some sort of provision of a deposit can't get into housing. And that's the problem. Sam Hawley: Yeah. There's just a certain number of people that keep buying properties and pushing the amount or the cost of properties up. I mean, there's enough people that can afford the properties because the property price keeps going upwards and upwards. Alan Kohler: Correct. The truth is that if you don't have a parent who can give you the money for a deposit or some other way of getting ahold of a deposit, as opposed to saving it, you're a renter. You cannot buy a house. That is the reality of the situation, particularly in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, but increasingly in Perth and Adelaide and Hobart as well, and also everywhere in Australia. I don't know what's to be done about it, really. Sam Hawley: All right. Oh, gosh. So, dare I ask you then, if you don't have the bank of mum and dad or any family members that can actually help you in this process of getting this massive deposit to buy a home, is there really no chance ever that you're going to land in the property market at this point? Alan Kohler: Well, there has to be a big shift in the value of housing versus incomes. Prices would need to go back to the sort of relationship to incomes that they were 25 years ago, which is three to four times instead of the current sort of nine or 10 times. And the only way that's going to happen is if house prices stay where they are for a while, like a long time, like 20 years. Now, that will only happen if there's an oversupply of housing for that period. Both the federal government and the state governments are all doing what they can. They're working hard. I know, you know, they're genuinely working hard to increase supply, but there's a problem. The trouble is that the construction industry doesn't have the capacity, partly because productivity is so low. In fact, the Committee for Economic Development in Australia, CEDA, released a report about construction productivity and why is it so low. And they do say in the report that we're building now half as many houses per worker as we did in the 70s. So that's fallen by half. But not only is productivity low, the number of workers is also in decline because the average age of builders tends to be quite high. They're all retiring and there's not enough apprentices coming through. The government is talking about increasing the number of tradies who they bring in as migrants, which is definitely what's needed. They're not talking about anywhere near enough of them coming in. And any way, the regulator of the industry is reluctant to recognise foreign qualifications in the construction industry. So, you know, there's a real kind of blockage of kind of productivity and number of people in the construction industry. I think it's going to be difficult to achieve the kind of oversupply of housing over the next sort of decade or two that is required. Sam Hawley: And Alan, while we're waiting for all these houses to be built, conditions are absolutely ripe for house prices just to keep surging. Alan Kohler: Yeah. And the governments, in addition to doing the work that they're doing on supply, which is good, they're also kind of doing short-term band-aid measures, including helping first homebuyers, either through help to buy schemes or grants and so on. And so that just tends to increase demand and increase prices, because a lot of those grants just end up on the price. So, yeah, look, I don't think it's particularly good news on the subject of housing. I'd like it to be different. And there's no big magic bullet. There's just going to be a lot of sort of small work, grinding work to be done. And, you know, the fact is we have to go through a period where housing is a really bad investment. Sam Hawley: Alan Kohler presents the Finance Report on the ABC's 7pm News. This episode was produced by Sydney Pead. Audio production by Adair Sheppard. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley. Thanks for listening.
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
Australia and the European Union determined to seal trade deal as talks revived
Australia and the European Union have revived talks for a sweeping free trade agreement as the Albanese government aims to respond to a "rapidly changing global environment" on tariffs. Australia's trade minister Don Farrell met with the European Commissioner for Trade Maroš Šefčovič met on the sidelines of a summit hosted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris on Wednesday, local time. "Both Australia and the EU recognise that now is the time to strengthen our economic partnership, and we're working through the remaining issues to try and finalise the deal," Mr Farrell said. A pact with the region was "about building economic resilience in a rapidly changing global environment," he added. It came as US President Donald Trump imposed 50 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports on Wednesday, leaving America's trading partners reeling from the fresh uncertainty. Mr Sefcovic told journalists "we believe we can achieve substantial progress this year" on an EU-Australia free trade deal, after negotiations have been on ice since 2023. Australian officials could not put a solid timeline on when a pact would be signed, but agriculture is believed to be one of the sticking points. Australia has previously offered to put the removal of its luxury car tax on the table but wants greater access to European markets for lamb and beef exports. However, some big meat-producing EU member countries like France have reservations about opening the bloc's markets to potential major competitors like Australia. Such concerns are also holding up talks with South American countries. The advantages of an EU deal include increased investment, stronger supply chain links, education ties and export opportunities, Mr Farrell said. Earlier on Wednesday, the United States set a deadline for countries to send their best offer in trade negotiations. In February, Mr Trump raised steel and aluminium tariffs to a flat 25 per cent "without exceptions or exemptions", in one of his first moves to aid the struggling domestic industries. The tariffs would apply to millions of tonnes of steel and aluminium imports from Australia, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and other countries that had previously been able to enter the US duty-free. On Saturday, Mr Farrell, said that Australia's messaging throughout the upheaval has been consistent and clear. "These tariffs are unjustified and not the act of a friend," he said. Asked what leverage Australia might have to pressure Mr Trump into changing course, Mr Farrell reiterated the government's position that it would not be in Australia's best interests to retaliate. "We're going to coolly and calmly argue our case for the removal of these tariffs," he said. "They don't do what President Trump claims they will do, and we believe that free and fair trade requires [their] removal." ABC/Reuters
