I've never been so convinced than I have this year that media hype has a say in who gets picked for Origin. Maloney and Merritt are the two picks that stand out like beacons to me that support this theory. Now don't get wrong, Maloney is a good player, he may even have a very good game 3 and go on to play Origin in 2014, but he basically got selected for NSW on about 6-8 good games for the Roosters and his supposed 'combination' with Mitchell Pearce. It certainly can't have been because of the way he played for the Warriors last year. The simple question for me is whether he is a better five-eighth than Mullen. Personally I can't see any way, whether you're basing it on this year or last, that he is.
As for Mullen, he really is the forgotten man:
- Probably now outright leading the Dally M count or perhaps 1 point in arrears.
- Exceptional kicking game.
- Exceptional defense for a half.
- Pinpoint passing game.
- Very good and still improving decision-making (when to grubber for a repeat set, when to put up the bomb etc).
Now back to my original point. Anyone who has watched him this year I don't need to tell all this to. But the crazy thing is not that Mullen got overlooked for Origin, which wasn't really surprising at all, but that whenever there are discussions about NSW halves, especially in the media, Mullen's name barely gets tossed around, if at all. Maloney, Carney, Sutton, J. Reynolds etc., these guys get mentioned every week as NSW half options. It just seems to me like they pick and choose their fancied players to talk up and don't look at anyone else.
Of all the hours of Origin discussion, deadest Sterlo must have been the only guy to talk up Mullen as a genuine possibility the whole time. As far as the various guys on these panel shows are concerned, sometimes I feel like I'm watching a different game to these guys and they're only interested in watching/commenting on the same select players every week.
I guess my point is hypothetically speaking, if all the papers and magazine TV shows that we see every week had been raving about Mullen's form all year, how many people would have been shocked to see him there for game 1 instead of Maloney? Not many I'd wager.
I think he's next to no chance of being picked for game 3, and I think it's only a slim chance he gets picked next year. There's a real chance he could retire having played 1 game for NSW because he got picked as a 20 year old and didn't play out of his skin. What a shame that would/will be.