It's all too easy to sit here in this forum and criticize Maloneys performances in the back end of the year without fully understanding his injuries and how they hampered his game.
If he was able to perform the second half of the year the same as the first half, we would have had a real shot at the premiership.
Lets hope this surgery allows him to play at the peak of his ability for the full season.
Most of the criticism was aimed at selecting a busted player who was a liability. People did the same when we did it with Wallace in 2017.
We wanted Jimmy rested around Origin so he could be fit for the end of the year. He didnt get a break for so long he was busted when we really needed to find form.
He should not have been given the workload he had through the Origin period. Cleary is younger and missed 8 weeks. RCGVis younger and could easily have his minutes cut. Peachey played about 15 minutes of repfooty all up. While our oldest rep player just didnt get a rest until injury forced him to be rested. Even then we tried managing his injury through playing.
He, the coaching and medical staff deserve to share blame for that. Someone needed to think ahead for end of season. The fact we were first leading into Origin should have made it an easy decision to make. We werent desperate for wins at the time.
