Michael Maguire’s selection Blues-print for Game I: Pick winners

When Michael Maguire names his NSW State of Origin side on Sunday night, there will be one key advantage that the Blues have over Queensland.

DAILY TELEGRAPH 30TH NOVEMBER 2023 Pictured at NSWRL Centre of Excellence at Sydney Olympic Park is the newly announced NSW Blues coach Michael Maguire.

When Michael Maguire names his NSW State of Origin side on Sunday night, there will be a series-defining theme to the majority of selections.

Once the shock of who has missed out, like Latrell Mitchell, and who has made it, like Joseph Suaalii, subsides, there will be one key ingredient that the Blues have over Queensland.

Maguire’s team will be largely made up of players from Cronulla, Penrith and the Roosters - three of the most lethal teams in the current premiership race.

Your columnist is confident that from Maguire’s 20-man NSW squad named on Sunday night, as many as half of the players chosen will come from three of the top four premiership favourites.

Cronulla’s Nicho Hynes, Cameron McInnes, Penrith’s Jarome Luai, Dylan Edwards, Brian To’o, Isaah Yeo, Liam Martin and the Roosters James Tedesco, Joseph Suaalii and Spencer Leniu all have huge support within the NSWRL to be selected for State of Origin I on June 5 in Sydney.

Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii is tipped to win one wing spot for the Blues. Picture: Richard Dobson

Meanwhile, Queensland are dabbling with picking a collection of players from the underperforming Cowboys, Titans and Eels.

Having been consumed by the fervour and the ferocity of State of Origin ever since the Lang Park crowd began hurling full cans of XXXX at the Blues players in 1998, this column understands that the interstate series is like trekking Mt Everest to the NRL’s Sunday stroll.

Listen to those that have played inside the furnace and they tell you that Origin players require the reaction time of an F1 driver, the endurance of an Olympic distance runner and the resolve of a heavyweight boxer.

So if you’re Maguire, picking players that, for the past three months, have been playing at a superior level of pace, that are playing inside a high-achieving system that holds elite standards in both attack and defence, makes sense.

The Sharks are the form-team of the competition, led by Hynes, who is playing with a level of maturity that is superior to his 2022 Dally M medal year.

The greatest example of Hynes’ transition from special to elite was never more evident than last weekend in Magic Round.

Against the Roosters in the first-half, Hynes skewed his clearing kick out over the sideline on the full.

James Tedesco of the Roosters and Nicho Hynes of the Sharks are both strong contenders to play Origin. Picture: Getty Images

It was his first misjudged kick since Cronulla’s worst performance of the year in round three loss against the Wests Tigers.

So when Hynes sprayed his kick in Brisbane last weekend, everyone who remembered the loss at Leichhardt, eagerly awaited his response.

It took a matter of minutes.

Hynes stepped forward and kicked a 40/20 for the Sharks to attack from.

What few critics have realised, or just haven’t bothered to respect, is that Hynes has taken his game to its highest point without a recognised five-eighth beside him this year.

Unlike the premiership-dominating combination that Jarome Luai had with Nathan Cleary before the latter got injured, or Ezra Mam had with Adam Reynolds until the latter got injured, Hynes has driven the Sharks to the top of the NRL ladder by playing the first six games with a largely untested halves partner in Braydon Trindall before being asked to combine with makeshift rookie Daniel Atkinson for the past four matches.

When Australian coach Mal Meninga and so too Maguire, when he was previously in charge of the Kiwis, sat down to pick their squads, they routinely began by selecting all the players from the top four teams, before filling the other positions.

The simple process allowed them to field a team full of players playing at the highest level of consistency.

NSW Blues head coach Michael Maguire. Picture: Getty Images

Coaches want players with winning habits.

Next time you’re watching any of the struggling teams play, watch how they don’t run to their next job, they walk.

What separates the top four teams is, they never stop, which is the habit of an Origin player.

Maguire loves fit players. It has been stated that his obsession with fitness is a factor in why he was run out of the Wests Tigers.

If only the Tigers players had bought-in.

Why did Maguire want his players so fit? Because he wanted them to keep moving. To run, not walk.

Maguire will pick a NSW team that are capable of trekking rugby league’s Mt Everest. From clubland they will arrive into Blues camp with the habit to keep running.

Because as history shows, if you stop in an Origin game, it can cost you the entire series.