It seems like every Josh, Willie and Blake has a chance at making the NSW origin team for game one and frankly I’m sick of it.
As much as I love seeing the Blues selectors squirm at the thought of trying to stop the Queensland juggernaut, I also enjoyed the tightness of last year’s series.
But with half the team still yet to be ‘chosen’ due to injuries, not every good display deserves selection.
It was only three weeks ago that Laurie Daley came out and made the rookie mistake of saying 16 of his 17 man team was locked in, instantly creating bad juju and consequently dooming any of those 16 for next few rounds.
Cue Brett Stewart suffering a freak injury after the halftime siren, Brett Morris getting sat on by David Williams, Paul Gallen suffering a ‘minor’ knee injury in the opening minute of the Sharks’ match in Newcastle (funny how “he could play next week” has turned into a decent sit), Greg Bird faces some issues with the judiciary this week and Robbie Farah is coming from such a toxic, morose environment he may not be used to his teammates around him actually having some experience.
This sparked an onslaught, every performance followed with a ‘he should be in Origin contention’ and ‘the selectors could do a lot worse then picking my guy’. More focus was placed on how many guys a coach could name as potential NSW players and less on how their team actually performed.
What’s worrying is this weekend some of these ‘contenders’ had some questionable defensive efforts.
Nathan Merritt was a mere traffic cone waiting to be run over by Marika Koroibete, Jarryd Hayne was fooled very easily by a Ben Creagh step, even the ever-consistent Robbie Farah had a bad outing defensively on Friday night.
The halves continue to be speculated on. Even though Daley has said they most probably will be Mitchell Pearce and James Maloney, we’ve seen Todd Carney, Terry Campese, Jarrod Mullen, Peter Wallace, Luke Walsh, Adam Reynolds, Josh Reynolds and Jamie Soward all touted as possibilities for a blue jersey.
The thing that really gets me is that Queensland themselves have some issues as well and selection issues, yet you’ve heard absolutely nothing about the fact Justin Hodges may not be able to play, there’s no winger on the other side of Darius Boyd, and the forward pack is more than open for a raft of players.
So just take a step back NSW media, coaches and fans and realise one-off performances don’t warrant a claim to a jersey.
But choose wisely and this series could be yours.
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