Round 13 Talking Points: Billy’s bold call to back newbies in Origin, club footy delivers despite stars missing

Origin shapes up as a bit of a gamble for Queensland with the new players they’ve brought in while NSW have gone with experience in their squad with the return of Tom Trbojevic, Latrell Mitchell and Josh Addo-Carr.

Judging from his comments during the week and the approach he’s taken with team selections, I think Brad Fittler’s approach is going to be around the defensive capability of his team. 

In the first game of Origin there’s always a greater focus on field position and winning the first couple of tackles of every set and I think that’s what we can expect on Wednesday night in Adelaide.

Your back five are a big part of that and Queensland have taken a bit of a gamble by changing their side around out wide. 

It looks like Valentine Holmes is going to switch to right centre alongside Selwyn Cobbo instead of on the left with his Cowboys teammate Murray Taulagai, who will be with Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow.

Cameron Munster and Daly Cherry-Evans are constants on their respective sides but then you’ve got two new second-rowers in David Fifita and Tom Gilbert on the inside of them.

(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

So both Queensland edges have a new look about them. 

It’s hard to build up combinations straight away – it can take a lot of time at this level.

The Maroons had Greg Inglis with Darius Boyd on the left edge for the best part of a decade with great success and Justin Hodges and Brent Tate were together on the other side. 

This current side is going to be confronted with Latrell, Turbo, the Fox, James Tedesco and Brian To’o, who are all dangerous attacking players at this level

Queensland’s back three in particular are going to have their hands full with Nathan Cleary’s kicking game peppering them and how Reece Walsh goes at fullback will go a long way towards who wins. 

The Blues will be trying to land their kicks inside the 10m zone, then lift him up and drive him backwards with numbers in the contest.

But if they don’t get it right and he gets time to move he can be very dangerous on kick reception. His wheels are so good and his anticipation is first class so he can take advantage of time and space. 

Slater played that role for Queensland and the Kangaroos for a long time so he understands that role implicitly and what you have got to get done.

But you’ve still got to get it done. You can coach it and you can ask for certain things, but when the pressure comes on, it’s how you handle that so there’s a test there for Walsh in his debut.

Reece Walsh. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

They’ve gone without some experienced campaigners and Dane Gagai and Kalyn Ponga and that’s fine, but the guys who come in have got to do a better job than those two blokes because Ponga was man of the match in the decider last year and Gags has been one of Queensland’s best for the past 10 years. 

Billy’s made those calls and I admire him for having the courage of his convictions. He showed last year in his first series as coach that he knows what Origin is about but you’ve got to get those decisions right and the new players have to be outstanding on Wednesday night.

Club standard holds up well despite lack of Origin stars

Normally when you have a split round during Origin time, the standard of play can drop quite dramatically but what we saw this week was as good as I can remember.

There were a lot of players missing across the five games but what was apparent was the teams that still had their usual players in key positions, especially in the spine, were able to cope much better.

Brisbane had five players out on Origin duty against the Warriors but Adam Reynolds and Ezra Mam in the halves were probably the difference in getting them the win.

Parramatta were without Junior Paulo up front a few other injured forwards but Mitchell Moses and Dylan Brown in the halves, with Clint Gutherson at fullback really stood up to be counted in their victory over North Queensland.

The Cowboys were coming off a hiding the week before but I thought they showed a lot of resilience and having guys like Chad Townsend and Reece Robson in their spine meant they were able to give Parra a good run for their money.

I doubt that Canberra didn’t put any pressure on Jack Wighton or Josh Papalii to retire from rep footy but they’re already reaping the benefit of that. Wighton came up with the big play towards the end of the game that got them over the line against Souths.

(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

If those two guys weren’t playing, I reckon the Rabbitohs would have won that match. 

Souths had three big names away with Origin in Latrell Mitchell, Cameron Murray and Jai Arrow as well as Campbell Graham out injured but their back-up guys filled their role well. 

That’s what you want at this time of year when you bring guys in – to do their job and it’s up to the established players in the team to get the win. They’re the guys who are getting paid the most, they’ve got to win you games.

The Broncos brought in Tristan Sailor at fullback and Deine Mariner on the wing, they did what was required and then Reynolds provided the class and the kicking game to get them past the Warriors. 

It seems strange to me that the Warriors historically don’t seem to be able to capitalise on this time of year even though they hardly ever have anyone in Origin.

With the Dolphins coming into the competition, it was supposed to dilute the talent having a 17th team but they’ve not only shown that they’ve been able to assemble a good roster but that there’s a lot of players scattered around the traps just waiting for a chance. 

They had a vacancy at fullback with Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow in Maroons camp but they had Kodi Nikorima at the ready, someone who’s filled in at fullback before, and he slotted in nicely.

You don’t need these stopgap players to do it week after week, you just need them to perform when called upon. It’s about the next man up mindset and knowing that younger guys in your system will take their chance so you know they can be relied upon in the future or they’re putting themselves in the shopfront to perhaps land a deal elsewhere.

Wayne Bennett has been navigating the Origin period for 35 years and he knows all about the squad mentality you need to have to get through it. 

As a club coach at this time of year you’re constantly worried about workloads and managing the numbers of kilometres the players are putting in their legs, the collisions, how they’re travelling mentally.

You’d like to take a longer term view of giving them a rest here or there when you can but it’s easier for the teams at the higher end of the ladder to do that, not so much when you’re outside the top eight and need every win you can get.

Knights too good for Manly

Kalyn Ponga, Daniel Safiti and Dane Gagai (who were overlooked for Origin selection) were close to the Knights’ best against Manly who showed a fair deal of resilience on Sunday afternoon in Newcastle.

To be honest – the Knights should have won by a lot more than the final 28-18 scoreline – with a couple of tries disallowed or attacking players being held up over the line.

Two tries against the run of play courtesy of intercept passes by Ponga and Jackson Hastings kept Manly in the game for a lot longer than they should have been.

Ponga looked more comfortable at fullback, was highly involved and was their most dangerous attacking player.