Elliott Smith: ZB sports commentator ahead of tonight's State of Origin decider

Over in Australia, fans are getting excited ahead of tonight's State of Origin decider between New South Wales and Queensland in Brisbane.

Forward Mitch Barnett will make his Origin debut for the Blues off the interchange, with Kurt Capewell starting in the second-row for the Maroons.

ZB sports commentator Elliott Smith unpacks the fan excitement ahead of the 10:05pm kick-off.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Made it Goods made State against State Game three State
of Origin. Tonight's sports talk host Elliot Smith is or
whether that's Blues or the Reds, who's up?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I think I'm going the Red side. Moron's obviously got
a text from a colleague who's in Brisbane who says,
absolutely feral at the moment, it's already what ye hang on,
it doesn't kick off in six hours away. Yeah, this
place is completely nut's Game three one. All the whole
city is feral. They've sold out of Queensland jerseys in
the whole city other than kid sizes. So it's all

(00:28):
set for a decider. And to be honest, I don't
think the series has been that great to this point year.
We're heading to a decider tonight, but there is nice
to have a decided it is right, but both games
have been blowouts on its side so far, so look,
let's go have a close contest. Tonight lives up to
the expectation absolutely because I guess Origin needs it. It
probably doesn't hold the same hold that maybe it had ten, fifteen,

(00:51):
twenty years ago, but it's still activating, I think, so.
I think, yeah, maybe this is a personal view, but
I think, yeah, perhaps to compete to my interest that
was ten years ago, not quite there. And I think
it's because a lot of the Kiwi players are actually
you know, world class and they're not obviously playing origin.
See you take them out and yeah, it's gonna be
good tonight though, that'll be great.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, especially in Queensland.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
My goodness.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
The White Fern's summer schedule is through, so New Zealand
Cricket has announced six in bound tours.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Across the Black black Caps as well, so forty one
potential days of international cricket, which isn't too bad. We
already knew the Test dates. They've got three against England
which are really for me the standout.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
And there all before Christmas.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Before Christmas here it starts late November, so three across Wellington,
christ chich Hamilton and then we get into a lot
of white bull cricket for the rest of the same.
In fact, there's normal tests after that, so it's all
test cricket before Christmas and then we're into the white
ball format. I guess for the Black Caps it's about
rebuilding after that T twenty World Cup horror show where
they didn't get out of their group and a little
bit of rebuild with Came Williamson stepping away from the

(01:51):
captain c So they're gonna have Sri Lanka just after
Christmas and then over to Pakistan for the champions trophy
back again and Pakistan's back here, so the White fans
have Sri Lanka and Australia to welcome to these shores
as well. So look, look, always a good day when
the schedule comes out, so like little just trying to
figure out one because the weather's better than here. But
so just you know, looking at the international summer and

(02:13):
hopefully getting to a game.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah three now very good. And Gareth Southgate has announced
he's going to stand down as England's football manager.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, it's interesting to see where his legacy will sort
of lie because they're famously not won anything since nineteen
sixty six. But he's the manager that has gotten closer
than ever before two European Championship finals ultimately didn't win
either of them this year and four years ago, so
he's got them closer, but he hasn't quite got them
to the pomis Land and for English football fans that's

(02:41):
still obviously not good enough and there's been criticism about
his style and the way that they play under Garri Southgate.
They got some great players, you know, Phil Foden jubelling
him at the moment, some generational players that maybe just
aren't being unleashed in the way that you'd want them
to an international level. So he's going to step aside.
Someone's going to step in. I don't know who is yet,
but he's waving goodbye.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Very good Hi, thank you, sir. Jack Elliot Smith with
us on Sports Talk tonight seven o'clock on News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
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