I feel like people's need to disagree with me makes them over zealous in their arguments against me, but ill try and not let that interfere.
1. I do not have a "bias" or "agenda" against gillett more than i do against anyone that is not performing. If McQueen was picked I would be saying the same thing. Gillett is not playing well enough for the broncos to warrant qld selection. Simple. I dont want to see Papa there purely to flatten out nsw (altho that would be great and he does bring that to the table). You are definitely making assumptions on why i want papalii there. I want papalii there because his form over the last 5 - 6 weeks has been amazing. he has been running great lines, he has set up several tries with fantastic offloads and his defence has been superb. He is looker fitter and faster than he was at the start of the season and i think he deserves his spot. Gilletts role in origin has been limited and very basic, and there is no reason papalii could not do that and bring the upside of his brutal hits along with it.
also, while the passes were not great to gillett (mcguires especially), and i do acknowledge that, you cannot argue that he has a habit of dropping the ball A LOT. at least once a game he will run that same line and drop it. he has very poor ball handling this year, and again, its not up to the standard one expects of a qld rep.
The pass from vidot to gillett should have been picked up, and i believe most players (except maybe dave taylor) would have taken it.
2. I am not suggesting we replace boyd, but i was simply dropping the idea that if we needed to replace boyd for whatever reason, gagai would be an interesting option based on form. If we have game 2 in the bag and boyd is looking rough still, sure it would be good to blood gagai, but it wont happen, it was just a nice little thought in my head. Boyd is clearly underdone, and if mal decided that his performance in game 1 was not up to scratch (it wasnt FTR) then i would love to see gagai get a run. You would be surprised but since boyd's selection in game 1 i have constantly been defending him to my friends and family. They questioned why he would be picked after only playing 2 games and i said "he is a safe option who has never let us down" over and over. I stand by that, but that is only if he is fit. I dont believe he is playing at his peak fitness right now, so if the maroons wanted someone that is, gagai is that man.
Let's agree to completely disagree on both points.
You say you don't have a bias against Gillett, and yet the way you're trying to emphasise his little errors and use hyperbole to describe his footy says otherwise. Your example about the Vidot offload is telling... as like BP said, very few people would've caught that ball, and almost all of those who might have, would be backline players.
He hasn't been dropping balls as you say, he did that twice in the last 2 games due to horrible passes he had almost no chance of holding on to, he has been tackling and defending much better than Papalii (a reminder that great hits do not equal superb defense), and Papalii's lateral movement deficiencies have been on display more than once, which ironically was one of Gillett's issues.
My problem is that people are saying that Gillett has not been playing well enough, and I call bullshit, because he has been doing what is asked of him, fixed his defensive issues, and is not being used to his potential in attack.
Same thing can be said about his Origin usage. I would dare say that with Papalii, we wouldn't have kept NSW pinned in their half and earning repeat sets the way we did with Gillett's kick chase for example.
Could he be better? Undoubtedly, and I'm sure no one knows that better than himself, Wayne and Mal, but I personally believe that Wayne wants to make sure he irons out his defensive problems before unleashing him in attack, while waiting for the spine to start gelling better and take more advantage of the weapons on offer in our second row.
As to Gagai... he wouldn't be my first, second or even third choice to replace Boyd if need be. I don't think you can carry such a defensive weakness in an Origin squad. You know how I feel about Maranta, and I would have him there before Dane!
