Did the Suaalii send off ruin the game? | Paul Gallen gets honest as the Blues go down 04:24

0-4-6-0, 8-7-3, 8-7-3, if you'd like to join in. Scotty says, Mark, I can't agree with you. Those running the game have got to be upset with the ref. Makes an unfair mockery of the whole thing. The biggest brand advert they have for the game, and the ref takes the oxygen out. Wasn't an intentional piece of foul play. Rather a tackle gone wrong against a falling player. Very poor by the ref at this level. Ref needs to interpret with common sense. Maybe the AFL has it right, no send-offs. Well...

The NRL's trying to eliminate contact with the head. I don't know why the NRL would be upset with the referee. We all agree he had the kahunas to make the decision. It was the right decision, and for that, Ashley Klein should be applauded. And I'm sure the Match Review Committee, when they look closely at the tackle, they'll take a dim view of it as well, and I think you'll find Joey Suolii will be spending some time out of the game. Now, Queensland has won three of the past four series and will be aiming for three straight series wins tomorrow.

for the first time since 2015-17. They do have that 1-0 lead. Since the introduction of a three-game series in 1982, the team that's won game one has gone on to win the series on 31 occasions from 42 series, and 18 of Queensland's 24 series wins have come when winning...

game number one so those stats coming through courtesy of Andrew who's done plenty of homework leading into this game tonight let's bring in the former New South Wales captain Paul Gowland who's been a part of the nine coverage he's with us here in the commentary box on the continuous call team gal tough night for the Blues yeah it was tough night um I'm pretty deflated I've come in looking to give it a big man obviously come on lift a bit girl it hasn't been a great night it's hard look at

How can you win these days? When you're down to 12 men for 10 minutes, it's hard enough, let alone being down for 72 minutes. It's just too hard. They were very brave. They tried their backsides off. They come out of the second half very, very pumped up and look for a lot of it, they're probably on top, but at the end of the day, when you're down to 12 men, it's just too hard to maintain that energy. There's probably about a

six or seven minute period where the ball was in play constantly and that just like while that was hurting the queens and there's also when you're down to 12 man just makes it too hard for the blues and the back end of the game the queens has got a couple of tries to really kick ahead and yeah look that's life we've got to move on and have to get the job done game two yeah fair enough let's go back to the open line 131873 the number gary's at cranebrook wants to have his say about the suoliti incident g'day gary

Yeah, g'day, fellas. Look, I'm disappointed like all the other people, but the ref, like, I'm a Penrith supporter. The Penrith supporters hate that ref. I'll tell you what, that bloke had some kahunas doing what he did. Like, it had to go, he had to go. As I was just saying to the bloke, like, what you guys haven't said about is that you've got new people watching the game,

And if they see that, they'll say, these blokes are just all thugs. Like, at least they see... Now, Soali's not a bad kid, you know? Like, but...

I know you can talk all about that, but once you hit the head, and with that intensity, he's got to go. As Ray said, the more you look at it, the worse it gets. Exactly, Gary. And that's the thing, Gary. We've seen replay after replay after replay of the contact. We're all on the same page that it had to be a send-off. Did it...

I don't want to say ruin the game, but did it have a huge effect on the game? Well, yes, it did. It ruined the game. It did. Look, it ruined the game. Look, I'm as blue as they come, as you know, and I come here, the first thing Bramham said was that a send-off wanted me to say no, and look, it was. I can't. Contact direct with the head these days is a send-off. It was very, very forceful. He was, I grant it, he was slipping. Suhal, he did drop his body level, but any contact with the head these days is generally... It was forceful. I'm not denying that. I'm

You know how I ruined the game? It did ruin the game. Two ways, two ways.

One, the bloke got sent off, and two, we didn't get to see Reece Walsh, who's the superstar of the game. And that's why it did ruin the game. I agree, but it was the right decision. He had to do it. And, Gal, if Reece Walsh is on the field and we're down to 12 and the Blues, I don't think we're talking about it being 38-10. Probably not, but you know what? We wouldn't have been down to 12 if he stayed on. Look, I think it ruined the game, but it was a send-off. I'm not trying to discredit that at all or take it away. I thought he made the right decision. Yep. All right. Thank you, Gary, for your call. We'll take another break. Be back with more.