CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
It’s been said before and we’ll say it again.
New South Wales just don’t get Origin.
For the last two weeks, the Sydney-based cartel of journalists, ex-footballers, administrators and commentators have banged on relentlessly about how good the NSW Blues are looking as they head into game 1 of the 2025 State Of Origin.
Dubbo boy Isaah Yeo has been named the new NSW captain ahead of tonight’s match, as Blues coach Laurie Daley pulls together a 20-man squad that is being constantly described as ‘the best on paper’ by the Sydney media.
Yeo will become the 22nd player to lead the Blues in State of Origin when he leads the Blues onto Lang Park for Game I at Lang Park on May 28.
Yeo’s Penrith teammate Dylan Edwards will be playing fullback, and Parramatta half Mitchell Moses will partner with the hatrick Premiership winner Nathan Cleary in the halves.
After a stellar performance in the early rounds of the NRL season, Canterbury forward Max King will be on debut.
When compared to their Queensland opposition, this team is far more youthful, famous and decorated in NRL trophies.
For the average New South Welshman, this measurably flashiness is a sure sign that they have winning side.
They couldn’t be more wrong.
All of this will mean nothing when they trot out onto the hallowed turf of Brisbane’s Lang Park for Game I tonight.
As New South Wales appears to still not understand, past performances and statistics mean nothing in the Origin arena.
Throughout the last few weeks of hysterically biased sports journalism, not once has the word ‘Spirit’ made it to print. There has been no mention of the fans and towns that they are doing this for. The players and coaches haven’t even thought to send any messages of hope and love to the flood victims in the state’s north.
The Blues are falling into the old trap of assuming that their team’s individual NRL performances and pedigree is going to translate into the State Of Origin. It doesn’t mean anything if their hearts aren’t in it.
And with Queensland hosting the first of these three matches tonight, New South Wales may just be given a brutal reminder that a team of Maroon nobodies is statically far more likely to achieve a three-match clean sweep than a team of Blues stars.
