Michael Maguire is trying to cultivate a next-man-up ethos for the Blues. He’ll have to start straight away.
In a development that will shock nobody, I was at a pub when Penrith halfback Nathan Cleary walked from the field and up the tunnel at BlueBet Stadium last Friday night.
Hamstrings are often the trickiest of the soft-tissue injuries for an athlete, especially after they’re strained or torn the first time.Each tendon feels like a ticking time bomb, ready to ping or pop at any moment, no matter how much work is done on them. Something as innocent as the brush of the shorts on the back of a leg can cause the player to immediately think they’ve re-injured it.You feel for him as you do Cleary, who is obsessive about his preparation, both mentally and physically.
If a sniper takes out the hamstrings of two key players, two more players merely step up and get the job done. Sounds simple enough. In 2022, Maroons five-eighth Cameron Munster was playing so well he was earning comparisons to Wally Lewis, such was his command of every match in which he played. On the streets of NSW, people started moon-walking. Punters put the rent money on the Blues, an investment seemingly more prudent than north-shore real estate. Columnists started work on their inevitable NSW victory stories.
It’s a convenient cliche to say Queensland understands Origin better than NSW — but it’s largely true. The Blues grasp it momentarily and win a series or two before blowing matches they should, on paper, win.Maguire is less inclined to follow Queensland’s lead than forge his own, as he did with New Zealand when his so-called lesser side embarrassed Australia 30-0 in the Pacific Cup final last November.
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