Here are some thoughts I wrote in an email to a mate before Hayne was cleared (and effectively wrote Dugan out of the picture)
Trent Barrett, Matt Cooper, Ben Creagh, Josh Dugan, Michael Ennis, Paul Gallen, Kurt Gidley, Jarryd Hayne, Nathan Hindmarsh, Jamal Idris, Jason King, Tom Learoyd-Lahrs, Luke Lewis, Brett Morris, Luke O'Donnell, Mitchell Pearce, Beau Scott, Timana Tahu, Trent Waterhouse, Michael Weyman, Brett White.
If our esteemed selectors think that squad is good enough to even come close to troubling Queensland they are delusional.
Sure, admittedly Queensland will find that team hard to break down and beat, but eventually a lack of craft and pace in the New South Wales team will conspire against them and Lockyer, Inglis, Thurston (Folau and Slater) etc will find a way through and they will beat us.
New South Wales have picked a defensive, toiling squad, with just enough softness in the forwards to ensure we lose the battle up front and then compound it with an inability to strike them out wide. If Brett White is an Origin forward, then I am Phil Goulds Great Great Grandmother.
New South Wales have gone for a blend of old men recalled out of desperation and slow men installed out of a desire to prevent Queensland scoring too many points and making the scoreline look terrible. A loss however, is a loss. The selectors want a close score so they can point to the fact that they're near to finding the solution to beating Queensland purely to save their own skins. This team has admitted to everyone that they're aware we can't win.
I don't have a problem losing to Queensland if we give it a red hot go and find players that can attack them, but picking a team designed to lose by a narrow margin is just gutless and it shames me to call myself a Blue.
Jennings, Lawrence, Farah, Snowden, Douglas & Josh Morris all deserve to be in contention ahead of the likes of Gidley, Tahu, White, Scott, and Idris and we have ignored them. Then to make matters worse we have a totally new halves combination thats never played together and wont ever play together again beyond this season. The same stupid, short sighted idiocy that has landed us in this position is once again being followed. Yes they've picked Gallen and Dugan, but it's too little to make up for the horrible selections.
For the first time since I came to Australia 15 years ago, I can honestly say that I'm seriously considering not switching the television to watch Origin next Wednesday night and that makes me so angry.