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Nathan Peats should fill New South Wales' Farah void

13th April, 2014
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Nathan Peats is the sacrificial Eel. (Digital Image by Grant Trouville © nrlphotos.com)
Expert
13th April, 2014
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Nathan Peats has got to be the man to replace the injured Robbie Farah for NSW in State of Origin I.

Peats is the future at hooker for the Blues. If the future has to come a little early, even if only while Farah is missing, that shouldn’t make any difference in the minds of the selectors.

Michael Ennis and Kurt Gidley are the other players mentioned as contenders to replace Farah. The likelihood is the Wests Tigers captain won’t be fit for Origin I on May 28 after dislocating his elbow against North Queensland on Saturday night.

Farah is expected to be out for six weeks. The Blues team will be picked in five. Even if he looked a chance of being fit, I couldn’t see NSW coach Laurie Daley picking him without seeing him in a club game first.

Ennis and Gidley have, of course, both played plenty of Origin football. Ennis has had seven games at hooker and utility Gidley has played 12 times. Indeed, Gidley is a former NSW captain.

But they have had no more luck at winning games than anyone else for the Blues and I don’t see any point in going back to either of them when neither has played Origin since the last game of the 2011 series.

Ennis was discarded for Farah, who has held the spot since the start of the 2012 series. Gidley, who played fullback for NSW before settling into the bench utility role as cover for the key positions, has largely been thwarted by injuries since then.

But Newcastle’s Gidley will turn 32 in June. Canterbury’s Ennis turned 30 last month. They’re obviously good players, but neither is screaming out to be picked with his form. Peats, meanwhile, is doing exactly that.

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Peats has been tremendous for Parramatta. He is proving to be one of the best buys of the season. He’s tough and skilful, he controls the ruck and he makes a mountain of tackles. He was the promising back-up to Issac Luke at South Sydney and has become a star with the Eels.

Luke’s presence meant Peats came off the bench for restricted game time with the Rabbitohs, but he is an 80-minute player at Parramatta.

I realise you can’t pin an entire team’s performance – good or bad – on one player, but it is worth noting that the only time the Eels have been embarrassed this season was when Peats didn’t play. That was in Round 2, when they lost 56-4 to the Roosters.

Parramatta reversed that result against the Roosters on Saturday night, winning 14-12, and Peats played his role very well against the premiers.

Peats is 23 and has played a bit of representative football already. He represented City Origin last year, and the Indigenous All Stars last year and in 2012. This is his fourth year of first grade.

There is no need to hold Peats back now that a situation like this has developed. He is going to be the NSW hooker eventually. Why not let him loose now?

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