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With their 54th halves combination now looking set in quicksand, a lot of the Origin debate has now switched to who will line-up on the NSW wings.
And a bloody good thing too.
For you see, while wingers may traditionally have a reputation for purely being finishers and blokes who hang around with football players, a bad one can really blow your state’s Origin dreams apart quicker than any Andrew Johns-led bonding session.
And boy, haven’t NSW had some doozies!
While I don’t want to point the finger of blame squarely at the ‘Paul Stringers’ for the Blues recent run of outs, they certainly haven’t helped an awful lot have they?
For a few years there it seemed as if the only pre-requisite to getting a start was a good marketing angle (funny facial hair, born somewhere weird etc), being able to take repeated Greg Inglis palms to the face and making Darius Boyd look like the next Immortal.
Perhaps however it’s something about the blue jersey, as even famous players like the usually unstoppable Rod Wishart have been mowed down by front-rowers when donning the obviously cursed jersey.
And let’s not even start talking about the man from the Moree Boomerangs…
Compare this with Queensland’s history; where a player like Brent Tate grows an extra six inches (four of those on his chin) for Origin and Adam Mogg is given the keys to the city post-match. Something is amiss.
This makes you think, if you’re Nathan Merritt, do you really want to make the NSW side and join this Blues Wingers Hall of Shame?
The Nathan Merritt story is a heart-warming tale.
A man who in 2002 made his debut in a South Sydney side that ranks up there with some of the most appalling in professional rugby league history, and from whom he is the only name most fans can say without giggling.
Then on to the bright lights of Henson park, where he plied his trade for the mighty Jets in front of a crowd of 8,972 week in, week out.
Then back to Souths, who still sucked, but where he somehow managed to score 22 tries in the 2006 season.
Representative honours followed via the Prime Ministers XIII and Indigenous All Stars. A premiership is finally within his sights.
But what’s this? The Johnny-come-lately Blues look like they’re about to swoop in and sully Merritt’s remarkable journey by plonking him on the wing three years after they should have as a fetid little footnote in the great one’s biography.
It’s deplorable, it really is, and if Merritt has any sense regarding his future legacy he would put to good use his blistering pace and evasive skills to avoid Laurie Daley like the ASADA line of questioning.
Sure this might not ethically seem like the right thing to do, after all NSW could use a try or two, but Merritt has a legacy to uphold and needs to look out for number one.
And, after all, it’s not like the Blues don’t have the depth to pick someone else’s career to ruin anyway. Just look at Kevin Gordon’s funny haircut for example…
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