{"id":313641,"date":"2023-07-04T05:27:33","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T05:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=313641"},"modified":"2023-07-04T05:58:27","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T05:58:27","slug":"why-smith-questions-blues-radical-shake-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=313641","title":{"rendered":"&#039;Why?&#039;: Smith questions Blues&#039; radical shake-up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/queensland-maroons\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Queensland\">Queensland<\/a> great and assistant coach <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/cameron-smith\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Cameron Smith\">Cameron Smith<\/a> has called out rivals <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/nsw-blues\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"NSW Blues\">NSW Blues<\/a> ahead of Origin III, questioning their decision to make seven changes to their squad, after the series has already been decided.<\/p>\n<p>The Maroons won the first two games convincingly\ufeff, forcing Blues coach Brad Fittler to make some major calls in the hope of taking out the final game.<\/p>\n<p>But, Smith \ufeffhas voiced his opinion on the bold selection calls, <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/state-of-origin-nsw-blues-team-list-2023-players\/be3be2d8-c403-4b4d-b8a4-d1ca2cbcc145\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"including the addition of 34-year-old five-eighth Cody Walker\">including the addition of 34-year-old five-eighth Cody Walker<\/a>, questioning whether NSW has their future in mind.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/cricket\/the-ashes-news-2023-new-footage-of-moment-mcc-members-abused-usman-khawaja-comes-to-light-video\/71370b6b-c620-4de9-82ca-6b84b5fd5935\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Fresh video shows Khawaja abuse in Long Room<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/cricket\/the-ashes-news-2023-australia-vs-england-ben-stokes-reaction-the-west-australian-newspaper-front-page-second-test-lords\/984d6e6d-c8d4-40eb-be01-20ef3ddd46b8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>&#x27;Cry baby&#x27; Stokes&#x27; reply to Aussie newspaper<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/cricket\/the-ashes-news-2023-rishi-sunak-vs-anthony-albanese-jonny-bairstow-alex-carey-spirit-of-cricket-debate\/cf35a6d7-10a1-49ff-8a11-4d28a021997a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Prime Ministers in war of words over Ashes furore<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"4db8f4fc-f6d6-4438-929c-84349cc5dc47\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/4db8f4fc-f6d6-4438-929c-84349cc5dc47\" alt=\"From top left, Scott Drinkwater, Bradman Best, Spencer Leniu, and from bottom left, Keaon Koloamatangiand Reagan Campbell-Gillard pose for the NSW team photo for State of Origin III, 2023.\" data-width=\"6000\" data-height=\"3374\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;You are probably looking at a couple of them [the changes] and thinking &#x27;why weren&#x27;t these changes made after Game I, when the series was still alive&#x27;,&quot; Smith told SEN.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Are they picking this team for the future or are they picking this team just to win?&quot;<\/p>\n<p>It comes after NSW coach Brad Fittler <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/state-of-origin-2023-brad-fittler-nsw-blues-selection-five-eighth-cody-walker-jarome-luai-nicho-hynes-criticism-drive-wedge\/093a830b-f8e5-4f0b-836f-51409a83fcea\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"hit back at the critics\">hit back at the critics<\/a> over the latest Origin snubbing of Nicho Hynes, which Smith said wasn&#x27;t done with the future of the Blues&#x27; team in mind.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;If you were looking for the future, you would have thought Nicho Hynes would be in the football side,&quot; Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeffSmith added that despite his belief that this side is the Blues&#x27; strongest so far, he remains confused as to why NSW selectors made their bravest calls after the series had been decided.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;When you look at this football side and actually break it down, I would say it is probably their most dangerous football side,&quot; Smith said.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Watch the 2023 State of Origin series LIVE and exclusive on Channel 9 and <\/strong><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/9now.app.link\/1QDVFYZrWab\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><strong>9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em><\/em><\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"e90c5249-92c2-4e2a-b4c8-79f16c00840b\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/e90c5249-92c2-4e2a-b4c8-79f16c00840b-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"5472\" data-height=\"3648\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;But it&#x27;s been a little bit confusing the selections that they&#x27;ve made, particularly across game two and game three.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Queensland is hoping to win the series 3-0, for the first time in 13 years. \ufeff<\/p>\n<p>The Maroons head to Sydney to face the Blues in Origin III on July 12 at Accor Stadium.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/login.nine.com.au\/edm?client_id=wwos&amp;redirect_uri=https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au&amp;newsletter=true\"><em><strong>clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em><strong>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Queensland great and assistant coach Cameron Smith has called out rivals NSW Blues ahead of Origin III, questioning their decision to make seven changes to <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=313641\" title=\"&#039;Why?&#039;: Smith questions Blues&#039; radical shake-up\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":313643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313641"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=313641"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313645,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313641\/revisions\/313645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/313643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=313641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=313641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=313641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}