THE Jack Wighton NSW Blues bombshell is a left field blow the NSW Origin camp didn’t need six weeks out from the series opener on May 31.
Would it happen in Queensland? Cameron Smith made the call back in 2018 and the result was the Maroons lost the series 2-1 with NSW winning the first two games.
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Has it happened in NSW previously? Yes, Jamie Lyon also made the decision when the champion centre was playing for the Manly Sea Eagles and Queensland were in the middle of their eight-year reign of Origin dominance.
We can argue Wighton isn’t as important to the Blues as Smith was to the Maroons because he was the captain and Wighton was no guarantee to be an automatic selection for NSW.
But you’ve only got to read the quotes from NSW chief adviser Greg Alexander to know Wighton is an out-and-out State of Origin style of player and if available you pick him every day of the week.
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Is there more to the story? Let’s not forget Wighton was NSW best player in a beaten side in game one of last year’s series before COVID ruled him out of game two and then the Blues opted to overlook for him game three.
NSW lost that game and lost the series.
Read into that what you will.
Wighton played in the centres for Australia in the victorious World Cup campaign and was a standout in the green and gold.
On a positive note for the Blues Latrell Mitchell and Tom Trbojevic are fit and available this year meaning NSW still has plenty of strong options in terms of its backline.
The other huge positive for NSW is the form of Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary.
It was impossible not to admire the way premiers Penrith ground out a another gritty, epic, golden point win over Newcastle on Super Saturday.
In fairness the Knights almost deserved the two points given the effort the Novocastrian team submitted in front of a sold out home crowd.
Sure the Knights made some errors in the second half but to take the back-to-back premiers to golden point was a phenomenal effort.
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Panthers champion Clearly was the difference. Running into the wind, he missed the first shot at field goal, kicked a second one to level the score at 15-all and then got it done again in golden point.
Where the Panthers no.7 showcased exactly just how good he is was when he won the toss in golden point and swiftly opted to switch the way the Panthers had been running so they had the wind behind them.
Penrith then marched 60m up field from the kickoff and Clearly once-again iced a golden point game.
It was a tough field goal from almost 40m out but we’ve come to expect it from Cleary.
It was a brilliant performance from a champion no.7.
The final frontier for Cleary now is completely dominating at State of Origin level for the Blues.
All the champion playmakers like Andrew Johns, Laurie Daley, Ricky Stuart and Brad Fittler have owned NSW Origin results.
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With two premierships already and three Origin series victories at the age of 25 Cleary has got time on his side.
Given the continual improvement and the level of consistency he’s now playing with it looks like it will only be a matter of time.
Still on the Panthers win the hair-pulling penalty on Jarome Luai has created plenty of pub talk.
Anyone who knows Tyson Frizell knows there’s no way he would deliberately be involved in an act like that.
It was a tough penalty for the Knights with the Panthers scoring off the back of it.
That’s what champion teams do.
What were your likes or dislikes from round seven?
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