‘It has been all about a few individuals and not about the state and about the team.
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But it leaves Thaiday and the Broncos with a tough call to make: take an early guilty plea and miss two games, or fight it and risk missing three.
The 26-16 loss in Brisbane has placed Daley in a hard position because while NSW showed they were closing the gap and scored their second-highest points tally in the four years he has been coach and the most at Suncorp Stadium, the Blues still lost.
Paul Gallen will retire from Origin after game three next month.
“If “Gal” is fit, he will be there”, Daley said after the Blues landed at Sydney Airport.
“There is no such thing as a dead rubber in Origin and we will be out there to win”.
Gallen wasn’t keen to discuss the issue.
“He will be regarded as one of the great leaders”, he told AAP.
Gallen will retire from Origin after game three next month. But the Sharks skipper said in the lead-up to to game two that he would not step aside for younger players even if the the final interstate fixture was a dead rubber. “If you’re playing at home in game two and you’ve wrapped it up in the two games maybe we can look at doing that”.
Despite blooding six new players in this series so far and nine in the past two years, the presence of Gallen, hooker Robbie Farah and backrower Greg Bird creates a perception that little has changed.
However he did not rule out tinkering with his side, with one eye on the future.
Queensland coach Kevin Walters says Cameron Smith is the state’s greatest ever captain following his Man of the Match performance in the 26 points to 16 win over New South Wales at Suncorp Stadium.
“We wanted to make it a memorable night for him tonight and I’ve seen his big smile on his face when full-time siren went”, Smith said of Parker. Making comments like that after the game isn’t really beneficial to the NSW side.
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“Over a period of time I have said I have been astonished by the selfishness around this camp and around this team and in the leadership group and I don’t think it has allowed the team to evolve and to have it’s own culture and its own chemistry”, Gould said.
