There are State of Origin post-mortems, and then there are State of Origin post-mortems when NSW lose game one. For a state long ridiculed by those in Queensland as eating its own when things aren’t going well, the biggest question in the last 11 days was: will Michael Maguire blink? On Sunday night, most would suggest the answer was no. For the past few months, Maguire has seemingly clutched a blue jumper in his left hand everywhere he’s been, and a picture of Steve Mortimer kissing the turf in the other.
He was never going to throw his character-first policy out the door after one game. Especially when for 72 minutes his players emptied their lungs for mission impossible – beating the Maroons with 12 men after Joseph Suaalii’s send-off . So, his game two squad is one with a few massages and tweaks, and largely devoid of the open-heart surgery the Blues usually flirt with after a heavy Origin loss.
Importantly, the changes can all be easily explained away, too. NSW Blues coach Michael Maguire. Credit: Janie Barrett The most controversial one is Latrell Mitchell ending his three-year Origin exile.
But when you account for the fact it’s for the suspended Suaalii, Maguire can easily point to the fact it’s been forced upon him, and Mitchell’s form in the past month has been irresistible . Maguire’s boldest selection call for game one was to parachute Dylan Edwards into the fullback jersey, dumping James Tedesco as NSW captain (Tedesco later played after Edwards�.