SILENCE ON HALVES SAYS EVERYTHING
TAKE it as fact that coach Wayne Bennett is anything but impressed at some curious comments NSW chief adviser Greg Alexander made about his South Sydney halves Adam Reynolds and Cody Walker.
It occurred during Alexander’s fiery defence of the selection of Mitch Moses and Jack Wighton in a heated on-air debate on NRL 360 on Thursday night.
Alexander was seething at what he claimed was an “aggressive” line of questioning from Paul Kent who was asking whether it was a mistake not to replace the injured Penrith halves Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai with the Rabbitohs pair. Alexander claimed Walker “had his chance last year” while in respect to Reynolds he questioned: “Adam Reynolds, I don’t know how closely you have watched South Sydney play?”
It seemed a strange thing to say given most would agree the Souths skipper has been in some pretty good form and Walker’s recent efforts have been exceptional. But Alexander was adamant the Blues “wouldn’t change the decision” even though he conceded “there was always a chance it wouldn’t gel under game conditions”.
One of the big criticisms in the wake of Queensland’s shock victory has been about the lack of ball Tom Trbojevic and Latrell Mitchell got on the night, given they were the Blues’ two most dangerous players in game one and two. When pressed if selecting the Souths pair would have fixed the problems, Alexander fired back: “It might have Kenty but everything is great in hindsight. We’d be speculating on whether Adam Reynolds and Cody Walker would have done anything different to what those two did.
“I thought individually they both (Moses and Wighton) deserved a right to play Origin. We decided to go with Mitch Moses. Cody Walker had his chances last year. Adam Reynolds, I don’t know how closely you have watched South Sydney play? And whether you are just picking them because they are a club combination.
“As I said just a moment ago, I wouldn’t change the decision to pick Mitch Moses or to pick Jack Wighton in the halves.”
Bennett didn’t want to comment publicly when contacted but it’s fair to say he didn’t think Walker or Reynolds deserved what came across as a kick in the guts. Bennett of course staged Queensland’s against the odds series victory last year but had backed NSW’s decision to go with Moses and Wighton when he was asked if his halves deserved a shot.
Reynolds was asked about the comments on Friday but said he hadn’t seen the show.
Asked if he would have wanted another crack at Origin, he said: “I would have loved another shot. It would have been nice. But obviously they had their reasons why they went with Moses and Jack.”