Laurie Daley should not be coach of NSW rugby league any longer. If offered it again, he shouldn’t take it. Why would ya?
If he was fair dinkum and wanted success for NSW, he wouldn’t accept the job. Seriously, he’s had way too long, and without any success. If you were building a house and it took someone six years and it’s not even finished, wouldn’t you get rid of the builder? It’s common sense.
They need a fresh start. They need new challenges.
NSW need a new outlook on the challenges for Origin because people automatically know now: Queensland are going to win. Do we bring Tasmania in and have a bit of a tri-series to spice it up?
You know what, we want results. We don’t want friendships, we want results.
And I don’t want to come across as nasty or too mean because NSW has such great history and such great success in Origin, but at the moment, it’s just a one-way street.
And people say ‘the players in Queensland are better and this and that’. Well, of course, because Queensland invest time and energy into players who are performing well, not on reputation. Look at how many rookies played in this Origin series for Queensland.
Me personally, I’d go for a new coach because you just can’t keep people in there because they’re good blokes and they’ve been there the last couple of years and they get on well with the players.
You know what, we want results. We don’t want friendships, we want results.
All credit to Queensland too because Queensland pick people on performance, not on reputation. And NSW are just suffering the repercussions of the last 15 or 20 years of not picking the right people.
Here’s a good example:
If Nathan Blacklock was playing NBA or NFL and he averaged 23 touchdowns every season in the NFL and he averaged 33 points every NBA game, he’d be an MVP player. Well he scored 82 tries in four years – most prolific try scorer in the game when he was at the Dragons but he couldn’t even make the NSW team.
Preston Campbell. When you get Dally M Player of the Year you’re voted by your peers, supporters, everyone associated with the game, the best player in the competition. He couldn’t even make a rep side.
Preston Campbell (AAP) Source: AAP
And Nathan Merritt’s one the most prolific try scorers in the history of the game and they give him one game in Origin.
To fix it, they need to go out there and they need to get blokes like Latrell Mitchell, Tyrone Peachey and the young halfback for Penrith, Nathan Cleary. They need to start picking blokes on performance.
Queensland did it. They’ve won 11 of the last 12.
They need to start teaching these NSW players what it means to wear the Blues jumper and what it takes. They’ve got to start not just treating it like a game anymore, they’ve gotta start treating it like a culture. Like Queensland – it’s a culture for them.
NSW lack passion - Queensland they ooze passion. They ooze motivation and it just showed the other day that they get a rookie in there from the Melbourne Storm, Cameron Munster, and he won them the series.
And if Greg Inglis was eligible for NSW, I don’t think NSW would have picked him anyway.
Well why would they? They didn’t pick Preston Campbell or Nathan Blacklock. But all of a sudden Greg’s going to be an immortal and he’s the most prolific try scorer for Origin for Queensland.
Greg Inglis Source: AAP
Right, now on to one of the nicer stories you’ll see in sport, and Newcastle Knights captain Trent Hodkinson going to a school formal with a terminally ill girl.
That was amazing.
Last week, the Knights’ CEO Matthew Gidley rang me and asked me to present Trent Hodkinson his 150 game jumper, last week at a training session. And I also presented Shaun Kenny-Dowall his debut Knights jumper last week, which I did and I was very proud of that. And hearing on the radio and reading on the front page of the paper what Trent Hodkinson had done for that young girl; I’m a father, I’ve got a little girl and I really commend and take my hat off to him.
There are so many players who do so many great things outside of football that they don’t get commended for
The Knights are not in the best position and they’re not winning at the moment, but you’ve got an ex-Origin player and a representative player and a Knights player going out of his way to make this young girl’s dream come true in the community. That’s priceless.
There are so many players who do so many great things outside of football that they don’t get commended for.
And I really want to thank all the current and ex-players who go out of their way to help less fortunate people and engage with communities and help these young kids’ dreams come true.
There’s a lot of players in the game that really should be commended for all the hard work that they do outside of the game as well.
To hear more from Owen Craigie and for all of your rugby league news, tune in to Over the Black Dot on NITV at 9.30pm each Wednesday.
