I watched the presser again. I'm of the belief, from body language, eyes up contact etc that Meaning isn't really on board with all this. It's hard to think any decision on Fifita from the NRL wouldn't of been made well before the selection deadline and told to the selectors and coach. My gut feeling is he WAS selected and then the NRL knee jerked, postponed the announcement and sat up all night debating it.
It really doesn't ring true
The simple answer is always the easiest
They simply decided to.ignore it as an issue and avoid any issue by not selecting on merit
Seven weeks ago the prospect of a fifita chuchill medal would have seemed pretty remote
The fly in the ointment Fifita being the outstanding forward.of the entire finals.series making his omission on merit look silly
So they gritted their teeth and came up with this
In hindsight I bet they wished they dealt with it at the time
I have some sympathy for them though as the disastrously rushed.pearce penalty would have made them reluctant to repeat that rushing mistake again