The calls are growing louder for New South Wales to axe Jarome Luai and pick reigning Dally M Medal winner Nicho Hynes.
Panthers No. 6 Luai has played five games over the past two series but Sharks playmaker Hynes has enjoyed stronger form in 2023.
Hynes this week announced his intentions to take Luai’s jersey while also declaring “I hate Queensland” in an impassioned message to Blues coach Brad Fittler.
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“I love those comments. That a New South Welshman is actually coming out and declaring that he hates Queensland, he’s showing the passion,” Braith Anasta said on NRL 360.
“He’s playing unbelievable footy, is he in the box seat to get that No. 6 jersey?”
“It’s actually nice to hear given where the side was last year and they weren’t as passionate – the five-eighth last year wanted to play for Samoa, let’s be honest,” Paul Kent responded.
Phil Rothfield believes Fittler and his assistant Greg Alexander’s jobs are on the line and they cannot afford to repeat their selection errors.
“They should pick Hynes but Brandy and Freddy have made some mistakes in recent years and I’m sure they watched that (Sharks) second half the other day and look it had Origin written all over it,” he said.
“We haven’t had someone say publicly that they hate Queensland since Paul Gallen. The bottom line is you don’t pick Jarome Luai because we lost the series last year.
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“It’s just Brandy and Freddy (picking the team) and their jobs are on the line, it doesn’t matter what anyone says.
“How far did Nicho Hynes win the Dally M last year? How good did he look? You can’t overlook form, we’ve lost two of the last three series.
“You’ve got to pick the best footballers, we didn’t do it last year, we left Campbell-Gillard and he starred for the Kangaroos at the World Cup.
“We left Josh Addo-Carr out who was almost the player of the tournament (at the World Cup). We’ve got to pick our best side this year.”
Fellow veteran journalist Brent Read agree that loyalty only exists with success in Origin.
“Loyalty goes out the window when you lose, that’s a fact of life, we all talk about Origin loyalty but if you lose the series you don’t get loyalty, you get loyalty by winning games and series,” he said.
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“For me Nicho has to be there on current form because he’s playing better football than Jarome Luai, and they lost last year.
“You win by picking the best players and that showed last year when they didn’t pick the best players. They made so many selection blunders last year and it cost them the series in the end.”
Kent believes the Blues won’t axe Luai and Anasta pointed out that his Panthers teammate Nathan Cleary could be the deciding factor.
“If you’re the coach of NSW… they should probably speak to Cleary and say how do you want to play, but does that give bias to Luai?” he said.
“I know when Joey (Andrew Johns) was playing Origin and owning the side he had a huge say in who was in the side.”
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