Sam Thaiday misses bus as Maroons selectors ring changes for Origin II

MAROONS selectors felt the need for seven new faces as Queensland battles to bounce back in Origin II. PAUL MALONE analyses the sweeping changes.

Sam Thaiday runs the ball for Queensland in State of Origin I. Picture: Peter Wallis

SAM Thaiday has missed the bus, literally, and he may not get to ride it again.

Thaiday needed one more Origin match only to reach the 30-game career landmark when he was speared today by the Queensland selectors from their team to keep the series alive in Sydney next week.

For Game One, the Queensland team bus had painted on its front panel a list of players to have played 30 or more Origin matches.

They were: Cameron Smith (40 games), Darren Lockyer (36), Johnathan Thurston (36), Allan Langer (34), Petero Civoniceva (33), Mal Meninga (32), Nate Myles (32), Wally Lewis (31) and Greg Inglis (30).

That was the company Thaiday was about to join had he been retained for Origin II amid the mood for change and regeneration so strikingly prevalent among selectors Kevin Walters, Lockyer and Gene Miles.

Lockyer, his 2006 Broncos premiership teammate, felt keenly the responsibility of having to drop Thaiday in those circumstances, but their need for seven changes, including four debutants, to the side which suffered Queensland’s biggest home Origin loss on May 31 was no less acute.

QUEENSLAND TEAM: Seven changes! Walters wields axe to Maroons

Sam Thaiday runs the ball for Queensland in State of Origin I. Picture: Peter Wallis

Miles, a 20-game Maroon, is chairman of the Former Origin Greats charity organisation, who present the FOGS Statesmen award to every Queenslander to reach the 30-game mark.

At 31, Thaiday may be one injury away from a recall in Queensland’s limited talent pool in forwards positions, but it may also be a call that never comes if younger men Coen Hess, Tim Glasby and Jarrod Wallace can forge their way at Origin level this year and next.

Myles, who turns 32 three days after Origin II is played, is a footballer plainly loved by teammates.

Thaiday, too, is well regarded by those he plays alongside and also brings a sense of humour which can be a circuit-breaker within a team in the days counting down to an Origin match.

Thaiday’s output in attack has been questioned for some time, but as he told The Courier-Mail before Origin I there is more to being a valuable forward than high statistics for metres run and tackles made.

The Townsville-raised forward cited stats for supporting plays in attack and efforts, such as closing down kickers in general play, as important signposts for whether he plays well or not.

Coen Hess is one of four debutants named in the Queensland side.

Thaiday responded well on Friday night for the Broncos after his aggression had been questioned by his former clubmate Justin Hodges in a column earlier in the week.

Hodges claimed Thaiday was “one bloke you’d love to see get aggressive but for some reason he seems to have lost that aggression’’.

In Origin I, Thaiday played 45 minutes off the bench and hit the ball up seven times, making 50m and effecting 26 tackles, fourth among the Maroons.

In Queensland’s 2016 series win, Thaiday was measured at having run for 68m in Game One, 55m in the second game and 44m in the dead rubber loss to NSW.

Walters, Lockyer and Miles were evidently looking for someone to bend the defensive line back more than that.

For the Broncos last Friday, Thaiday ran the ball 15 times against South Sydney and gained 114m, while making 21 tackles.

Whether Hodges’ comments were a motivating factor or not, only Thaiday would know, but his output against the Rabbitohs compared to his NRL season averages of 10 runs for 88m and 21 tackles.

There were seven Queensland changes from the first game, including four debutants.

Walters said Thaiday, whose omission had not been as widely canvassed since the Origin I loss as Myles’s had been “bitterly disappointed” when he told the Bronco he had been dropped.

“It’s an enormous number thing to have played 30 games for Queensland and these changes were not taken lightly,” Walters said.

“Sam understood the reasons, that those changes were what the team needed.”

Queensland chairman of selectors Gene Miles said Thaiday and Myles had understood “it’s transition time”.

“It’s no secret we got busted up through the middle,” Walters said.