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If you’re going to be paid a school teacher’s salary for one game and let Queensland run over you, then there should be massive consequences.
The coach, selectors and captain should at least be made to explain why they should keep their job. They haven’t.
NSW were given a massive carving up in the final Origin match. It should have been the equivalent of Queensland’s 2000 whipping with a Bryan Fletcher hand grenade celebration decorating the cake.
After that hiding, Chris ‘Choppy’ Close apparently informed the Queensland dressing room that it was “Queensland’s darkest hour”.
They didn’t fool around. Coach Mark Murray went out and Wayne Bennett was brought back. The halves pairing changed (although Daniel Wagon and Paul Green were very temporary) and new blood injected with Lote Tuqiri, Kevin Campion and others.
The result? Queensland won the next series.
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NSW have failed to blood attacking players and youth with a misguided belief that being tough will win you a series. Sure, the Morris twins, Brett and Josh, Paul Gallen, Greg Bird and company are all hard nuts but Queensland defenders are rarely nervous when they have the ball.
Matt Moylan, James Tedesco, Blake Austin, James Roberts, Blake Ferguson, Nathan Peats and company all deserve a shot. The argument that NSW have no halves is tiresome.
Moylan would be a great five-eighth with Luke Brooks. The point is to make changes for the future and stop clinging on to this ‘let’s restrict Queensland’s points’ mentality.
What happened to the NSW backlines of old?
Bob Fulton and Laurie Daley were legendary players but unless we see an attacking, youthful NSW team this year it’s time for NSW fans to speak up.
This means being vocal on certain radio stations and newspapers that support the current management. NSW fans deserve better and should demand it.
That’s what Queensland did after 2000.
I don’t want to beat Queensland in a series. I want to flog them.
