Last weekend injured halfback Nathan Cleary appeared on a TV panel show that also featured NSW coach Brad Fittler. When asked by the show’s host about the severity of the torn hamstring that will keep him out of next Wednesday night’s Origin II at Suncorp Stadium, Cleary answered, ‘It could be worse’.
 
A dejected looking Fittler sitting at the end of the table looked up and said, ‘Nathan, do you think you could tell me just how it could be worse?’ It was a fair question from the under-siege Blues coach who is facing his third consecutive series loss. He has built his side around Clearly and the club combination he has with his Panthers five-eighth Jarome Luai. Without Cleary, he must have been thinking, his chances of beating the Maroons at Suncorp Stadium had gone from slim to near-on impossible.
 
Truth is though, that the untimely loss of Cleary probably gave the Blues their best hope of squaring the series. It provided Fittler with the opportunity to make some huge calls and totally re-design his backline and its style of play.
 
There is no question that Cleary is an outstanding NRL halfback. He has proved that by spearheading the Panthers to three straight grand finals and back-to-back premierships but in a blue jumper, just like Mitchell Pearce before him, he has never managed to make the huge jump to Origin level. Fittler has persisted with him, as any coach would, in the hope that one day it might click like it did with Joey Johns and Johnathan Thurston after slow Origin starts.
 
We will never know if that moment would have come in Origin II, just like we will never know what could have happened if Fittler had shown more imagination at the selection table. He had three choices for Cleary’s replacement: Nicho Hynes, Mitchell Moses and Adam Reynolds. He went for the safe option in Moses when he should have thrown caution to the wind and gone for Reynolds in combination with his old South Sydney halves partner Cody Walker.
 
Jarome Luai has never looked even remotely comfortable in Origin, even with his boyhood pal Cleary beside him. What hope has he got playing with Moses for the first time? Reynolds and Walker, reunited with fellow Rabbitoh Latrell Mitchell in the centres would at least have given the Maroons something to think about.
 
Speaking of the centres, I’d give Kotoni Staggs another start ahead of Tom Trbojovic who looked good against a decimated Dophins but was less Turbo and more Turgid in Origin I. Oh, and replace James Tedesco with Dylan Edwards. None of which will stop the Queenslanders from doing another victory lap of Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday night but to paraphrase Nathan Cleary, in comparison to Origin I, it couldn’t be worse.