Fitzy
NRL Captain
- Sep 10, 2018
- 4,188
- 5,895
I think he should retire now regardless. He is 33 years old in a month and has spent the last 4 or 5 seasons on tailored training plans because he can't survive the rigours of NRL. As much as nobody should stand in his way from taking the field if he was to be called up by Freddy but I just don't see how he could think it's a good idea to go into that environment. It's a decision he needs to make, nobody else, but I know what I would do in this situation. At the end of the day I might be insensitive cause I simply couldn't care less about the blues. I just don't think Reyno survives a season on 2 origins and one bye and thats what he has to take on if he plays origin. Its 2 extra high intensity games, 2 less byes and likely 2 guaranteed losses as its unlikely for any player to back up from here on out especially him. He will be 33, he is the captain and most influential player in a team going for the premiership I can't see how it is in anybodies best interests other than his own to play. Might be me being insensitive to his situation but I just think you have to prioritise the entity that pays you the big bucks and this is far too big of a risk to just be a seat warmer. This is such a difficult situation cause it is so rare, but when the club needs to give you a blessing to go play origin, you should probably take the time to think hang on a second why would they even need to do that in the first place. I might think differently if he had outplayed Cleary for that role but honestly he is seat warming a team that is against very long odds to win and there is no future in the role for him beyond this year. As sad as it is, but I don't see how he possibly could take that on with just the brittle nature of his body, his little time left in the game and his central importance to this team.
I re-iterate there is nothing I want more for Reyno to get this opportunity, cause he genuinely deserves it and I love the bloke. He has been a premier halfback for the competition consistently for years and years. However that is not a risk he can take in a premiership quality side to warm the seat in an already sinking ship. You take premier out of premiership your just left with a ship, and ours would be sinking without our premier player. I think a tough decision needs to be made here for Reyno sadly. It's a blemish on his legacy not getting the job done in origin and he will undoubtedly want to change that but he needs to look at it from the perspective of what 2 premierships could bring to his legacy (especially one in Brisbane in this nature).
It's very easy to be positive in this situation and take on the opportunity but he has unreasonable odds to come out of this worse for wear and I don't think thats fair on any of his teammates sadly. Might sound quite hypocritical given we have a **** load of crucial players already playing origin without this expectation held over them. I can't tell if I'm being unreasonable or not but this is just my opinion. He has to take into consideration every last aspect at his age and if there is any increased risk to any other normal NRL game I think he has the responsibility to not take it on.
Regardless I think Freddy picks Hynes simply cause you can't rely on Reynolds being available after this year and he probably would be wanting to see if Hynes can play 6 next year and this would be a good test on top of the already neck and neck nature between who gets the role ability wise.
