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'Blue Chips'
This is it. Can Moses deliver the Blues out of Suncorp, and send the series to a decider?
by George Togafana I 19th June 2023
History says no. But in the words of Israel Adesanya, Mitchell Moses can make this HIStory.
After the injury to Nathan Cleary all the talk has been around who will be replacing him for the remainder of the series. Who was ready to lead the Blues into enemy territory? Adam Reynolds for me, seemed to be the sensible option with his form this year being a big reason why the Broncos are sitting pretty at number 2 on the ladder. He knows Suncorp and he wouldn’t feel daunted by the prospect of running out on his home ground. With his possible return to Origin, I think it would have meant Jerome Luai would have had to make way for Cody Walker, bringing the Bunnies combination of Walker, Reynolds, Damien Cook, and Latrell Mitchell back together. Any chance of that happening though would have been ended when Walker got injured.
Then there’s the case of Nicho Hynes who I think played himself out of the Jersey after struggling against Melbourne at the weekend. A bit harsh for the reigning Dally M medallist after only featuring in the last 12 minutes of game 1, but I don’t think the door is closed on him. He’s too good a player to not be playing Origin and had we gone into this game 1-0 I think Coach Freddy Fittler would have picked him but he has chosen to go with Moses, a player that he feels he can trust to go out and do a job for him and the state of New South Wales.
The TPJ experiment turned out as expected. I wanted this to be different. This guy can be the man on his day, but the problem is his days are rare. He hurt our chances with some silly penalties and ultimately was pulled 9 minutes into his second stint after an offload to the other team lead to a try. For someone to openly come out and say they supported the other team this should have been a red flag for Feleki. Hudson Young gets another chance and I do think he has a lot to offer but maybe as an impact player coming off the bench, but we will see how they use him next week. One thing I do hope Freddy and his staff look at is making better use of their interchanges because it is inexcusable to have the best Prop in the game sit on the bench for almost 40 minutes waiting for his second stint. Congratulations to the boys debuting, Tangata Utoikamanu and Reece Robson who both have been standouts for their clubs, despite their clubs struggles so far this year.
All that’s left to do now is back the selections and believe because this is it. There are no second chances, we lost that in game one, and credit to Queensland for once again being able to pull something out of their muli’s when it looked as though the Blues were going to get the dub. It’s something we can take on as we support our boys next week. Belief. QLD supporters show this no matter who they have playing Our boys need our support now more than ever.
So instead of adding our lua seiges about who should have been picked, perhaps it’s time we show love to the boys who are there.