- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Who would make your NSW team, if you had to pick one now? I would find room for Josh Reynolds and John Sutton, and I would try to convince Jamie Lyon to have one last hurrah.
My team depends heavily on Lyon playing, since I have gone without both Todd Carney and Adam Reynolds in the halves. I need a goalkicker.
Plus, I’m not happy with Michael Jennings in the centres at this stage.
If I didn’t have Lyon, I may have to revert to Carney, who had an ordinary start to his Origin career last year and is out injured at the moment.
Beyond that, there is Michael Gordon to consider at fullback. His statistics this season are very good, and he is obviously a goalkicker. I wouldn’t be afraid to pick him.
But Stewart had a good Origin series last year and is a dynamic player. I’ve got to bank on him, even if Blues coach Laurie Daley would have to nurse him through the training camps because of his niggling injuries.
Josh Reynolds would be my five-eighth. I’m impressed by the way he has kept desperately trying to make something happen in a struggling Canterbury team this year.
He looks like an Origin player of the future, so why not make the future now?
I would have Sutton on the interchange bench. The inconsistency that dogged him for years is now gone under Michael Maguire’s coaching at South Sydney, and he could play in the back row or cover five-eighth if injury necessitated that.
Reynolds would be my back-up hooker, which means I would be going without Kurt Gidley.
I realise Gidley is in the Australian team to play New Zealand on Friday, but Test selection doesn’t guarantee NSW selection.
Different coaches, different type of game.
I would go with four forwards on the bench, but include two – Sutton and Luke Lewis – who are versatile enough to adopt backline roles.
The circumstances that saw Josh Reynolds ruled out of the City Origin side for Sunday’s game against Country are frustrating. He looked all set to play until the Bulldogs medical staff ruled him out.
Reynolds opposite Country five-eighth James Maloney would have been a genuine State of Origin trial.
It doesn’t really matter that Stewart couldn’t be considered for the Country side because of injury. He doesn’t have to prove anything.
And his being out means we will get a look at Gordon at fullback, and that could end up being important.
Brett Morris has got to be one winger, and his brother, Josh, one centre. I would have Jarryd Hayne on the other wing, ahead of Akuila Uate and Nathan Merritt. Hayne has had some big games at Origin level on the wing.
I can’t see any option at halfback other than Mitchell Pearce.
Adam Reynolds simply isn’t ready. Throwing him in as Blues halfback this year would potentially ruin his representative career.
It would be great to have Andrew Johns or Ricky Stuart available, but we don’t. Pearce is the best available.
Maybe there is no chance of talking Lyon into playing, I don’t know. But it’s worth a shot. Daley should get Bob Fulton involved, if Fulton hasn’t already had a crack at it.
Get Phil Gould involved as well.
It was Gould who brought Brad Fittler back to Origin in 2004, after he had finished up for NSW with an inglorious defeat in 2001, and Fittler went out the second time by playing a big part in a series win.
Now Lyon hasn’t played Origin for three years. Surely it would be a temptation to him to come back for a final crack, if they sold the idea to him the right way.
There are two games in Sydney this year, which could help sway Lyon. He doesn’t like being away from his family, so let him slip away a couple of nights, if that is capable of making the difference.
We’re talking about trying to end a seven-year drought against Queensland here.
In the forwards, all I need to see is a successful comeback from Glenn Stewart and he would be in my starting side. The Blues always need players like him, and Greg Bird.
Ryan Hoffman is in great form for Melbourne, and he would be there as well. He should have been in the Test side.
My starting props would be Paul Gallen and James Tamou, with obviously Robbie Farah at hooker.
And so to the bench, where it is always critically important to get the balance right.
Sutton is big, strong and skilful. Trent Merrin is in great form at prop for St George Illawarra. Manly’s Anthony Watmough and Cronulla’s Luke Lewis are both hard workers who also have skill and good footwork.
They don’t need more than three props in the squad. One of the back rowers can easily play in the “middle three” for a period.
I don’t think you need a Gidley when Farah is an 80-minute player and you’ve got Sutton capable of playing in the halves.
Look at Queensland’s bench last year. They ran with four forwards each time.
I know it’s easier when you’ve got Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk in the halves and Cameron Smith at hooker, but we’ve got to assume our starting halves and hooker will each do a good job.
One of the biggest mistakes NSW made last year was selecting Jamie Buhrer on the bench for Origin I. He only got on the field for a few minutes. It was a waste of a spot.
The Blues went with four powerful, but still athletic enough forwards for Origins II and III, and should stick to that this year.
My NSW team right now is: Brett Stewart, Brett Morris, Josh Morris, Jamie Lyon, Jarryd Hayne, Josh Reynolds, Mitchell Pearce, Greg Bird, Ryan Hoffman, Glenn Stewart, Paul Gallen, Robbie Farah, James Tamou. Interchange: John Sutton, Trent Merrin, Anthony Watmough, Luke Lewis.
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.