I don't like the bloke but doesn't mean he isn't a decent player, and a great team man for his club. I hated the real King, King Wally, but he absolutely owned state of origin in its era, captained his state and country. King Wally regularly delivered when the stakes were at their highest. Hated but respected him. Wally only played in the NSWRL in the back end of his career which was a real shame.
I don't hate Gutherson with the same venom I did the real King. Mainly because he's not near the quality of player King Wally was and NSW's arch enemy in the 80's. Gutherson is a big head on a decent NRL players' body. Many of his behaviours don't befit a bloke who - in my view - is a decent player who but has got regular errors in his game. He kept up his average 2 blunders a game on saturday night. Yes he had a 15 minute purple patch but with the game in the balance he threw it over the sideline and fumbled in goal. Wont say the in goal disaster cost Parra the game but when the pressure was on... that happened. When the game was in the balance on the biggest stage in the real Kings' day - he always rose to the occasion. Never saw him drop his lollies.
But - Gutherson does bring character to the game which people either love or loathe. Can't say he's vanilla unlike a lot of sportsmen these days.
As for SOO selection...He's way behind Tedesco and then Papenhuyzen for the #1 spot. I'd be gobsmacked and gravely concerned if he was at 1. It's not about me not liking him, we've had loads of big-heads in the past. It's that with his error rate he's not the guy I want protecting my goal line at that level.
I don't normally agree with having a 30-odd-man origin squad but this year given end of season I can see merit given there may be injuries after games 1 & 2 so need to have players who haven't gone off tap at the end of the season. Maybe a reserve centre since we've lost a bunch in Tom T, Staggs, also put Mitchell in that category. But if he got in ahead of Jarrod Croker that'd be an absolute travesty in my books.