It is really tough to win a clean sweep in Origin. The last was the Maroons team in 2010. If you drop your intensity by a small margin the opposition will run riot and in Game 3 this is exactly what happened.
Cody Walker, Bradman Best were fantastic. Finally, the Blues started with Cook, Martin and Murray.
I mentioned before this was the best Blues team for the series. As soon as Nathan Cleary went down injured, NSW selectors should have loaded the team with bunnies. I cannot remember a series where I felt this frustrated and angry at the bizarre Blues selections.
And it all started last season when Reagan Campbell-Gillard was dumped because the Penrith players wanted him out. Josh Addo-Carr dropped because of his lack of height (although Brian To’o is shorter).
The collateral damage done to players Tevita Pangai Junior, Tyson Frizell, Hudson Young, Nicholas Hynes, Matt Burton, Junior Paulo, Stefano Utoikamanu, Jarome Luai, Clint Gutherson all dropped, underutilised and in some cases out of position.
King Gutho was picked and played an entire three minutes on the wing when the Fox came off. I guess that’s three minutes more than Aaron Raper in 1997.
The next few weeks will be telling as far as whether NSW Coach Fittler or NSW Cap’t James Tedesco will want to run around again in 2024. For all those critics of Teddy, he ran for more metres in all three games than any Maroons player. In fact, his Game 2 low of 175m beat every single Maroons player in the entire series.
Fittler, on the other hand looks tired. No other coach has coach at this level more than five years. His time is up.
For the Maroons, there is talk about their champion Captain Daly Cherry-Evans who will be 34 next year. Hopefully he has one more year in him.
Coach Billy will be content with the outcome of the series. He now has a 2–0 series winning record. Next season will see his true metal. Brad Fittler also started with the same series record.
