Definition of insanity: trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? I get he pick and stick or development stratergies but none of those players fit those criteria. Dce has been tried before and failed miserably and isnt getting any younger, cooper is 31 and been terrible this year in origin and nrl and has also not given much ever in origin outside of jt making him look good, and hess may be young but he needs to learn the value of the queensland jersey...
One name i think falls before all of them though is hardly getting mentioned. Wallace! He has made about 70 metres in 2 games combined. He is an absolute powder puff at this level and dirties the name of webcke and ciovoniceva.
And just on replacements in the forwards... sua, thaiday, scott, glasby, welch, hipgrave and ffs even shaun lane have been in better form &/or have better runs on the board in origin.
I dont get how walters uses the loyalty card with these guys but not the ones who did it 20-30 times before to a much much higher standard. And why does he pick a 31 year old out of form player and many other 30 plus year olds yet goes on about the future? Why not just pick the special 30+ year olds and the bring in young guys for the rest. Dont do this half/half shit
Sorry but if you can’t see the difference between playing DCE now vs playing him a few years ago then that’s much closer to insanity.
To establish a few things firstly:
1. He obviously has ability. He’s had more than a bit of success in his career and he’s without doubt one of the elite Halfbacks in the game, so it’s not really a question of him being good enough to deserve a shot.
2. He clearly has some issues fitting into some team cultures as evidenced by comments from former team mates.
So whilst I don’t approve of it, I do totally understand why a guy like him probably struggled to fit into the existing Maroons culture and was unlikely to ever be a successful fill in for Cronk when it was still very much Smith and Thurston’s team.
The difference now is, it’s not their team, and that culture is now more or less gone. It’s a blank slate and if DCE wants to step up and produce results and earn the right to make it his team and his culture and he can get the results to support that, then he should have that chance.
The fact remains that Taylor is still quite raw, and isn’t even in great form at the moment anyway. Milford can’t Game manage for the Broncos so I have no clue why anyone would think he can do it for Queensland. Morgan is now injured and was already struggling at the Cowboys before that. Hopefully time off does him a huge service but it remains to be seen if he can make it back to the form he showed previously. Not to mention the other up and coming options are guys like Croft who can’t even hold his spot at Melbourne down and then guys like Walters and Lam etc who are likely years away from being ready for this level.
Queensland need to find someone to get 3-5 years out of consistent game management and leadership out of and DCE is at this stage the most likely of anyone in the NRL to give Queensland that.
This should be reason enough alone but to add one more string to his bow, he’s a pretty competent full time Goal Kicker now, and as we saw last night, Origin is all about the 1%’s, and going into another Origin game or series without a full time kicker with a decent strike rate would be the very definition of insanity.
As for Gavin Cooper, I’ve already said he’s not a long term option, but at this point he’s hardly one of our worries and I don’t see what blooding Jaydn Su’a, who at this point is our only fit and in form Back Row option besides Aiden Guerra would achieve. It’s not fair on Su’a who is only just establishing himself in First Grade and especially when Cooper’s replacement for next series is already locked in with Gillett coming back.
Hess likewise is hardly our biggest issue, he’s got plenty of x-factor and they just have to work out how to unlock this at Origin level but I think he’s done enough to be retained at this stage.
As for Wallace, I’ve already said a few comments up that he’s absolutely blown his chances and needs to go back to the drawing board and prove himself consistently at NRL level for a while now. Time for Joe Ofahengaue to be given his chance to show he can make the leap up in quality I think. Queensland urgently need more metres out of their Props and shifting McGuire back their for Origin games and bringing Joe O into the frame will hopefully give us exactly that.
