{"id":410267,"date":"2024-07-08T01:21:55","date_gmt":"2024-07-08T01:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=410267"},"modified":"2024-07-08T02:05:21","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T02:05:21","slug":"gal-damning-question-that-condemned-blues-rookie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=410267","title":{"rendered":"Gal: Damning question that condemned Blues rookie"},"content":{"rendered":"

NRL great<\/strong><\/em> PAUL GALLEN<\/strong><\/em><\/a> will appear on Nine's 100% FOOTY every Monday night of the NRL season, debating rugby league's hottest topics alongside Phil Gould and James Bracey. Tune in LIVE at 7.30pm (AEST) on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a> tonight following a bumper round 18!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\ufeffMichael Maguire<\/a> deserves a lot of praise for making an important change to his line-up when the easy thing would have been to stick with the same team for the State of Origin<\/a> decider.<\/p>\n

After dominating the Maroons<\/a> in Melbourne, I was concerned Maguire might have rested on his laurels and taken an unchanged side to Suncorp Stadium – barring Bradman Best coming in for the injured Latrell Mitchell.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Star axed, Latrell replacement named in Blues shake-up<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'I'm still crying': Hamilton breaks 945-day drought<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Eels land prized Bellamy pupil as head coach<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But Madge showed some steel in dropping Haumole Olakau'atu and bringing Mitch Barnett onto his bench for game three<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He knows in Origin you can't just do the same thing and expect the same result from game to game.<\/p>\n

Queensland is going to be a lot better in Brisbane than they were last time, and New South Wales has to get better or risk losing a third straight series.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You have to continually adapt and strengthen your team, and that's what Madge has done by making this change.<\/p>\n

He might spin it a different way – and that's his prerogative – but the truth is Olakau'atu hasn't been playing that well.<\/p>\n

I actually asked someone after game two if \ufeffOlakau'atu had even been on the field, because I didn't notice him. It turns out he did come on, but only made two runs.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 State of Origin series exclusively live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

And at club level he missed a pretty crucial tackle on Reuben Cotter on Saturday – luckily Manly beat the Cowboys in extra time, but it was a bad moment for such a quality player.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Olakau'atu is a damaging player at his best but he just hasn't been at that level recently.<\/p>\n

My hat goes off to Barnett\ufeff – he could not have done anything more to earn an Origin debut.<\/p>\n

\ufeffOnly three or four years ago I thought he was a player who looked a bit angry on the field, and he was always trying to prove how tough he was but going about it the wrong way.<\/p>\n

But he has taken his game to a new level\ufeff this year with the Warriors and he has not left any stone unturned in trying to get into this Blues team.<\/p>\n

You can see how much Barnett wanted to get into the team and it's a credit to him that he will make his Origin debut next week.<\/p>\n

He's been in great form for the Warriors and I\ufeff just want to see him bring that for NSW.<\/p>\n

He is a naturally aggressive player and will be a good addition.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Warriors<\/p>\n

Well done to Madge for making the switch – I like the look of this line-up.<\/p>\n

\ufeffBarnett makes our middle even stronger and we are going to need all those guys to stand up again at Suncorp.<\/p>\n

Queensland would have been embarrassed by the way the Blues \ufeffdominated the middle in Melbourne and you can be sure the Maroons will be fired up for the decider.<\/p>\n

None of the Queensland forwards could match it with our aggression and physicality. It was a great performance by the Blues, but like I said we can't expect that to just happen again.<\/p>\n

The change that makes me nervous is Kalyn Ponga coming into the Maroons' side.<\/p>\n

I still remember \ufeffhis Origin debut six years ago, when he came off the bench in Sydney and played lock for Queensland, and was dynamite.<\/p>\n

He's such a quality player and you can put him anywhere on the field.<\/p>\n

I was surprised they didn't bring David Fifita into the team\ufeff to be honest – they lacked some punch in Melbourne and Fifita is a dangerous player.<\/p>\n

But whoever lines up for the Maroons they should be prepared for a Blues onslaught in Brisbane.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NRL great PAUL GALLEN will appear on Nine's 100% FOOTY every Monday night of the NRL season, debating rugby league's hottest topics alongside Phil Gould […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":410095,"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\/410267"}],"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=410267"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":410271,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410267\/revisions\/410271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/410095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=410267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=410267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=410267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}