NSWRL at war with Wests Tigers and South Sydney Rabbitohs over Luke Brooks and Alex Johnston

THE NSW Origin identity crisis is back after two of the State’s most promising players pulled out of the Blues Under 20s team.

Alex Johnson of Souths makes a break.

THE NSW Origin identity crisis is back after two of the State’s most promising players — Luke Brooks and Alex Johnston — pulled out of the Blues Under 20s team at the behest of their respective clubs, Wests Tigers and South Sydney.

The NSWRL last night accused the Rabbitohs of setting a damaging precedent by withdrawing Johnston, who only made his NRL debut last weekend.

Highly reluctant to risk Brooks, the Tigers immediately followed suit and advised their half-back prodigy to skip Saturday night’s U20s clash against the Queensland U20s at Sportingbet Stadium. Neither player was injured.

Tigers half Luke Brooks in action.

The twin withdrawals provoked an angry response from NSWRL David Trooden, who felt Blues coach Laurie Daley had been let down in his bid to revive a winning culture.

“Our Blues coach Laurie Daley has been working very hard to try to create the sort of culture within the NSWRL that’s necessary to provide us with long-term State of Origin success,” Trodden said.

“His job is made difficult by not having access the players who have the potential to one day play State of Origin.”

On Tuesday night South Sydney responded with some advice of their own, with Rabbitohs CEO Shane Richardson claiming the NSWRL and Daley had not consulted the clubs about which young players would be required.

Alex Johnson of Souths makes a break.

Richardson pointed to the fact Queensland had managed to persuade Raiders superstar Anthony Milford to suit-up as proof Maroons coach Mal Meninga had handled the situation better.

“If the NSWRL wantedto create this new atmosphere, they had every opportunity to communicate that through the clubs,” Richardson said.

“I know Mal Meninga has had lots of conversations with the clubs about Queensland’s culture, and that’s probably why young Milford is playing for them this weekend.

“If that’s something Laurie wanted to do, he should have done that through our coaches.”

The Tigers said Daley had been in touch about using Brooks, who was happy to line-up this weekend.

Tigers halfback Luke Brooks in action.

But with seven players on the injured list — and halves Braith Anasta (ankle) and Blake Austin (knee) in doubt for their next match — the Tigers decided to wrap the 19-year-old in cotton wool.

“We understand the importance of representative football and would never want to stand in the way of a player,” Tigers CEO Grant Mayer said.

“But Luke is now an NRL player and with the amount of injuries we have as a club, he agreed he would be better served to have the weekend off.”

Richardson conceded Johnston would probably have been allowed to play had the 19-year-old not been blooded in last Friday night’s thrilling win over Brisbane.

But the local junior handled the pressure of replacing club icon Nathan Merritt, scoring a try on his second touch.

Alex Johnson (L) of the Rabbitohs celebrates after scoring a try.

An Australian Schoolboys fullback, he’s now firmly in the frame to wear the No. 1 jersey when Greg Inglis becomes unavailable during Origin.

As such, the Rabbitohs though the risk was not worth their long term while.

But Trodden feels the precedent could be adopted by other coaches in coming years, particularly because there’s no recourse for withdrawn players to be stood down from future club games under the current NRL contract.

“It is disappointing for the player to miss out on representing his state, which most people would consider to be a significant honour, but the real difficulty with decisions like this is the domino effect that the decision inevitably leads to,” Trodden said.

“We feared that as a consequence of Alex’s withdrawal, other clubs and players would make similar decisions in relation to availability, which would affect the game as a whole. This fear has been realised with the subsequent withdrawal of Luke Brooks from the team.”