- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Greg Bird missing the entire State of Origin series and Paul Gallen being out for at least game one could turn out to be positive developments for NSW.
The Blues only rate as an outside chance of winning the series against Queensland anyway, so let’s get a few promising young forwards into the team now – with a view to them staying there for good, if they’re up to it.
If it takes forced changes to do that, with a couple of Blues stalwarts missing out and facing the possibility they may never get back in, so be it.
There is something wrong if at least two players out of the trio of Josh Jackson, David Klemmer and Tyson Frizell – none of whom have played for NSW yet – don’t make the 17-man squad.
Canterbury pair Jackson and Klemmer have each already played for Australia, so there is no point in waiting any longer with them.
St George Illawarra’s Frizell has made a real charge at NSW selection this season.
Gallen is 33 and Bird 31. Would it really matter if neither played Origin again, when there are good young forwards available to take their places?
When NSW finally broke a run of eight straight series wins to Queensland by winning last year’s series 2-1, Gallen played in all three games.
Bird missed Game 1, which NSW won without him, and played in the second and third games.
But, before that, Gallen had been playing for the Blues from 2006 without sharing in a series win and Bird had been playing from 2007.
Last week I wrote that NSW didn’t stand much of a chance of winning the series because we didn’t have any halves that inspired confidence and Jarryd Hayne was unavailable.
I find it hard to get excited about the Sydney Roosters halves pairing of James Maloney and Mitchell Pearce, even though they got some good reviews following their team’s win over Canterbury on Friday.
It was supposed to be a shoot-out for Origin selection against Bulldogs pair Josh Reynolds and Trent Hodkinson and the Roosters pair did the better, but at the end of the day what have they got to offer?
Maloney can be very creative in attack, but he’s a risk in defence. Pearce looks great when his forwards at the Roosters are on top, but if they’re not then he can be reduced to having very little impact.
Reynolds lacks discipline and Hodkinson has struggled for form all season.
Maloney and Pearce were the NSW halves in 2013, when the Blues lost the series.
Reynolds and Hodkinson were the halves when NSW won last year’s series, but Hayne was the dominant influence in attack for the Blues then.
The word in the week leading up to the Roosters-Bulldogs game was that NSW coach Laurie Daley favoured a Pearce-Hodkinson halves combination.
If he were to stick with Hodkinson, then he would be showing enormous faith.
Surely Hodkinson is playing injured anyway, because he is hardly running the ball.
Whoever NSW pick in the halves, the Blues are going to be starting a long way behind the automatic Queensland pairing of Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk.
It’s more interesting to think of what can be done in the forwards, particularly with a few spots opening up due to Bird and Gallen being out and Anthony Watmough likely to be overlooked.
The starting six appears fairly set, with Aaron Woods, Robbie Farah, James Tamou, Ryan Hoffman, Beau Scott and Trent Merrin all looking likely to be there.
Josh Dugan is the likely fullback and Michael Jennings and Josh Morris the centres, with Daniel Tupou on one wing and either Alex Johnston or Will Hopoate on the other. Johnston has also already played for Australia without having made his NSW debut yet.
But the bench is wide open and this is where Daley has the opportunity to breathe new life into the team.
Luke Lewis has done a great job for NSW and Australia for many years, but at 31 and with a chronic knee injury he isn’t going to there for much longer, so maybe now is a good time to move on from him as well – even though many will argue he should remain for now because of his experience.
Put Klemmer, Jackson, Frizell and Andrew Fifita on the bench, not far ahead of Boyd Cordner.
NSW could really do with a quartet like that bringing some size, power and spark.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.