{"id":396422,"date":"2024-05-23T03:08:09","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T03:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=396422"},"modified":"2024-05-23T05:06:33","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T05:06:33","slug":"mad-blues-bolter-who-joey-wants-in-origin-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=396422","title":{"rendered":"'Mad' Blues bolter who Joey wants in Origin squad"},"content":{"rendered":"

N\ufeffew South Wales<\/a> legend Andrew Johns<\/a> has put forward a surprise late bolter for the Blues squad.<\/p>\n

The champion halfback says Warriors forward Mitchell Barnett could be a shock inclusion in Michael Maguire's first State of Origin<\/a> squad, to be announced on Monday.<\/p>\n

Barnett, 30, has never been selected for representative duty during a 155-game NRL<\/a> career.<\/p>\n

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But Johns believes he could do the job for NSW if called upon.<\/p>\n

"Geez he's playing well," Johns said of Barnett on Wide World of Sports' Freddy and the Eighth<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

"Coming off the bench, Mitch Barnett… (he's) mad. It's a controlled mad.<\/p>\n

\"Mitchell<\/p>\n

"I do (think he's in the mix) – he's played backrow and middle.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Barnett is a versatile forward who has spent time playing in the middle and on an edge for the Warriors this year.<\/p>\n

His final Origin audition will be against the Dolphins on Sunday, and he may yet make a late run into the squad.\ufeff<\/p>\n

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

He's previously had a reputation as a \ufeffhot-head on the field, which former Blues coach Brad Fittler said Michael Maguire would be concerned about.<\/p>\n

"Sometimes you can go too mad. You give away a couple of penalties (and) you change the whole game," Fittler replied to Johns.<\/p>\n

"He can play both (middle and edge), that's handy – it's like Liam Martin.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

While Johns believes Barnett is a chance of making Maguire's squad, he didn't select the former Knights forward in his ideal Blues team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ufeffBoth he and Fittler have instead chosen Liam Martin and Hudson Young as their utility forwards.<\/p>\n

While Martin is generally a backrower for Penrith, Fittler picked him as a starting front-rower in his NSW side.<\/p>\n

"Liam in the middle, I've played him in the middle before," Fittler said.<\/p>\n

\"Freddy<\/p>\n

"He does a great job, very aggressive.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Fittler's "bolter" is Panthers hooker Mitch Kenny, who Johns didn't include in his squad at all.<\/p>\n

"I just think he's suited," Fittler said of Kenny.<\/p>\n

"He's played in enough grand finals now, he plays hooker and also can play as a backrower or lock forward.<\/p>\n

"He also gives you great service out of dummy-half… and (he's) tough.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Both the Blues and Maroons will reveal their squads for Origin I on Monday morning.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

N\ufeffew South Wales legend Andrew Johns has put forward a surprise late bolter for the Blues squad. The champion halfback says Warriors forward Mitchell Barnett […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":396424,"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\/396422"}],"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=396422"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":396427,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396422\/revisions\/396427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/396424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=396422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=396422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=396422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}