I would have liked a much sterner response to any origin related questions. He should have been saying ‘We’re an NRL team, and both as individuals and as a team, we are currently not performing to NRL standard, so any thoughts of Origin should be a long way from the minds of anyone in our club!’
He can keep his feedback to individuals behind closed doors, but I feel he should have called out our collective ‘effort’. It simply wasn’t good enough, and effort isn’t a training/structure thing. Effort is what the players should bring to the party every week, regardless of anything else that’s going on.
Gordon Tallis is a nob, but the 1 thing he often talks about (usually when saying how amazing QLD players are) is that they always put themselves in positions ‘just in case’ they’re needed, and he talks about effort being visible by the number of jerseys in the picture, and he’s absolutely right. Unfortunately for us, our players are not making those ‘just in case’ efforts (Dale did to be fair on the penalty goal kick, but he was the only one), when there’s a loose ball, the other teams are fighting harder than us for it.
Dale tries but is just massively ineffective, as does McInnes. Nikora is the only one who for me who I can look at each week and think ‘you’re busting a nut, and making a difference’.