PRICHARD: Ten years on, NSW would kill for another 'Joey'

It is 10 years today since Andrew Johns made a triumphant return to the NSW team and turned the State of Origin series around with the greatest performance of his career.

June 15, 2005. State of Origin II at what was then known as Telstra Stadium. The Blues down 1-0 in the series after having lost 24-20 to Queensland at Suncorp Stadium.

Johns had struggled through the early rounds of the season after coming off a knee reconstruction and then broke his jaw.

He wasn’t considered for Origin I because he wasn’t playing and he had only one game back before they picked the team for Origin II.

The selectors left him out, but when chosen halfback Trent Barrett went down injured at training it became do-or-die time and Johns was brought in.

‘Joey’ responded by producing an astounding performance. It was one of those rare games where the best player on the field looked like he had a force field around him. Johns was virtually untouchable in a 32-22 win.

NSW then went back to Suncorp and easily wrapped up the series, winning 32-10.

Again, Johns was sensational. If Origin II was his best-ever display for club, State or country, Origin III was in his top five games.

That was the last time Johns played Origin.

I refer to this because it is a further reminder of how critically important the genuine superstar Origin players are and how freakish it is that Queensland have been able to field so many of them in recent years.

Darren Lockyer, Johnathan Thurston, Greg Inglis, Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk. Hell, five of them are still there – or it was five, until Cronk went down injured in Origin I.

There have been many great players represent NSW since Johns last played for the Blues, but the only one to have played for them during that time who is a genuine Origin superstar is Jarryd Hayne.

Hayne was the overwhelming reason NSW won last year’s Origin series after the Maroons had won eight straight, but he is, of course, unavailable this year because he is trying to break through in the NFL.

Including Wednesday night’s Game 2 at the MCG, NSW has used seven different halfbacks in the 29 Origins since Johns last appeared.

They are Mitchell Pearce (twelve games), Trent Hodkinson (five), Peter Wallace (four), Brett Kimmorley (four), Brett Finch (two), Craig Gower (one) and Jarrod Mullen (one).

During the same period, Queensland have used Thurston, Cronk (after Thurston moved to five-eighth following Lockyer’s retirement) and Daly Cherry-Evans (for the injured Cronk in Game 2 last year and now again this year).

The truth is that during that run of eight straight series wins to Queensland from 2006 to 2013, NSW did pretty well to have been swept clean only once – in 2010 – when you consider what it was up against.

That is how big an advantage Queensland has had in terms of the spread of the best players in the game from 2006 to the present.

Queensland would be better off with Cronk than Cherry-Evans for Origin II. Cronk is the oil in the machine.

But the suggestion that Cherry-Evans could actually be a liability for the Maroons reeks of desperation from people trying to find reasons NSW can win.

True, it didn’t work out as Cherry-Evans would have liked when he stepped in for Cronk last year, but lessons will have been learned from that by Cherry-Evans and the Maroons at large.

Don’t be surprised if Cherry-Evans, motivated by the recent criticism of his decision to back-flip on a contract deal with Gold Coast and stay at Manly, reacts by taking advantage of the rare opportunity to start an Origin match and has a huge game.

If Cherry-Evans was a New South Welshmen he would be the first halves player picked in that team. Selected halfback Hodkinson is no longer even the best halfback at his club – Canterbury. Moses Mbye is.

The Blues, playing at home, restricted the Maroons to 11 points in Origin I, but it was still enough for the Maroons to win because the Blues could only come up with 10.

NSW has picked a similar team for Game 2 that will again bank on defending its way to victory – this time at a neutral venue.

I can’t see NSW winning. One or more of those Origin superstars in the Queensland side will do something, at some stage, to make sure of that.