Amadean rants on for the Maroons
700 below the bar
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New South Wales Still Gutless, Funny-Smelling
“Yeah, I love a good blond joke too mate, but have you heard the one about Trent Barrett being compared to Alfie Langer?”
Alright, fair enough, New Southern Roaches’ selectors, fans, journalists and stylists are all panicking about losing 4 series on the trot. I’d be worried too, you know, if I didn’t happen to be a QUEENSLANDER. They did the right thing by blooding a good handful of young blokes in Melbourne (“Our Children Are Our Future”
and now need to reach boldly down their pants and grab whatever they can find. Unfortunately for New Southern Whales fans this will most likely consist of diaper rash, but hey, testicles must be at least a possibility.
Basically, the selectors threw a handful of talented kids into Melbourne and now look like blaming them for the loss. Campese, Wallace, Weyman and co. played bloody hard and came bloody close: not bad for colts.
If anyone should be blamed it should be the coach and captain for letting Hayne’s disallowed try get the team so thoroughly gutted. When the kids stopped sobbing the match was already past them, though they gave it a decent shot anyway. Inspiration can be fickle.
Regardless of the much-beloved-by-Newly-South-Welshfolk blame-game, there’s no value in dropping a coach or captain during a series. Injuries to McManus and Bailey leaves room for a couple of experienced heads to cover nervous gaps and that was the difference between the teams down South.
Given all this, why on God’s green earth would you bring back Barrett?
Apart from being a funny-looking twerp (the last time I saw features that oddly arranged was on Mr. Potato Head) he hasn’t played alongside or against anyone from either camp since Howard won an election. More-bloody-over, he hasn’t played competitive footy in months and even then it was against the (second dregs of humanity) Poms!
The argument seems to go: Alfie managed it, therefore Trent can manage it.
Good luck with that.
Alfie won Premiership and Origin medals as the best player on the field. He controlled matches, set plays and could bamboozle a panda. Trent, to give him his due, is a hard runner with good quick hands and an excellent short kicking game. Yes, he was pretty good, but never had the class, the game-changing genius, the perfect control, of Mal, Joey, Alfie or the King. Sydney would be Barrett’s eighth Origin match.
Campese, Wallace and even Mullen have talent and youth. They’ve the anger of losing. Above all, they could form the spine of a new dynasty for the Welsh. Knowing this and still putting in some has-almost-been with questionable hair because your speedos are full of Brazilian wax is simply wrong.
All this talk and all this cowardice is symptomatic of the worst of the Blues. In Sydney, the blame game matters. In Brisbane, beating the bastards next time takes priority.
Case in point: the ‘Wolfman’s’ pink beard. Williams has been bought into the side due to good form and an injury to the incumbent. He plans on dying his beard so the other blokes, particularly the Maroons, don’t laugh at him [according to the never-reliable Fairfax press]. Now, just pause for a second and think about this. You’ve got a professional footy player, not a small guy, altering his appearance so people won’t laugh at him. I don’t imagine he’s scared his feelings will get hurt if they do, but rather that his teammates will blame his face-fur if he misses a tackle.
If some bloke on the other team laughs at you in Origin, then you play hard and demand his respect. You go out onto the paddock and with the mindset that pink will forever after give Israel nightmares. The aim isn’t to avoid blame, its to win. It won’t affect your aerodynamic ability, just their concentration. Queensland have a bloke called Mike Hunt for crying out loud, do you see him changing his name?
David Williams, along with the Nouveau South Wails selectors needs to retain the courage of his convictions.
You may look funny in pink, or going down 4 series on the trot, but you’ll stink of cowardice otherwise.