{"id":387874,"date":"2024-04-25T00:27:28","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T00:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=387874"},"modified":"2024-04-25T01:03:28","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T01:03:28","slug":"legends-call-for-unstoppable-stars-origin-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=387874","title":{"rendered":"Legends call for 'unstoppable' star's Origin debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\ufeff number of New South Wales<\/a> legends have called for Zac Lomax<\/a> to make his State of Origin<\/a> debut this year.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old Dragons<\/a> star was disgruntled at being moved from centre to the wing by new coach Shane Flanagan at the start of this season.<\/p>\n

But the switch seems to have elevated his game to a new level, and he now tops the Dally M vote leaderboard after seven rounds.<\/p>\n

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He's been a key factor in St George Illawarra's four wins this season, placing them just outside the NRL's top eight heading into an Anzac Day clash with the Roosters.<\/p>\n

"Highly motivated at the moment. It's good to watch," former Blues coach Brad Fittler told Wide World of Sports' Freddy and the Eighth<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Zac<\/p>\n

"He came through (juniors) as a superstar… and it didn't come easy. Some of those better players coming through as kids, it's just about knuckling down.<\/p>\n

"You can see there's been a real difference in his attitude about how he plays – not what he does, just about how he does it.<\/p>\n

"The way he's going at the moment he's nearly unstoppable.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and <\/strong><\/em>9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Lomax was earmarked as a future Origin player from a young age.<\/p>\n

But he's yet to pull on a Blues jumper despite now being in his seventh season in the top league.<\/p>\n

NSW icon Andrew Johns says that has to change this year.<\/p>\n

"It's hard not to pick him, because he's not only the form winger or centre, he's the form play in the comp," Johns said.<\/p>\n

\"League<\/p>\n

"He kicks goals… and he chases, he does the little things, those effort areas. Strong dummy-half runner."<\/p>\n

NSW has been spoilt for choice when it comes to centres and wingers in recent years.<\/p>\n

New Blues coach \ufeffMichael Maguire will need to choose between Lomax and the likes of Latrell Mitchell, Tom Trbojevic, Jack Wighton, Joseph Suaalii, Kotoni Staggs, Bradman Best, and Stephen Crichton.<\/p>\n

Legendary former Blues coach Phil Gould says Lomax wouldn't let Maguire down.<\/p>\n

"I've said it to rep coaches over the last couple of years, don't be afraid to pick him," Gould told Wide World of Sports' Six Tackles with Gus<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"Obviously they were picking Tom Trbojevic and Latrell Mitchell and Jack Wighton and those sort of players, (but) there were two footballers I said I think have Origin football in them – is Campbell Graham… and Zac Lomax.<\/p>\n

"There was something about Zac I really liked. His constitution for work, his toughness, and things seemed to happen (for him).<\/p>\n

"He kind of lost his way a little bit, but he's been fantastic this year. He's matured and he's self-aware.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

The 2024 Origin series opener is on June 5 in Sydney.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\ufeff number of New South Wales legends have called for Zac Lomax to make his State of Origin debut this year. The 24-year-old Dragons star […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":367642,"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\/387874"}],"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=387874"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":387878,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387874\/revisions\/387878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/367642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=387874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=387874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=387874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}