Mal Meninga says Aaron Woods, Josh Dugan and Wade Graham are all still in Kangaroos contention
THEY were the forgotten trio of the Blues’ successful State of Origin campaign but Australian coach Mal Meninga says he won’t hesitate to throw them a representative lifeline.
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THEY were the forgotten trio of the Blues’ successful State of Origin campaign but Australian coach Mal Meninga says he won’t hesitate to throw them a representative lifeline.
Cronulla players Wade Graham, Josh Dugan and Aaron Woods have been mainstays of the Blues line-up in recent years.
But the trio did not play a part in Brad Fittler’s first series as Origin coach — because of either injury or form. Graham and Dugan have spent a large chunk of the season sidelined hurt while Woods’ indifferent start at Canterbury cost him his spot.
While the threesome may have thought their representatives days were over, Meninga said he had not ruled them out.
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“I won’t discard them,” Meninga said. “They will still be in the picture. Woodsy is now playing for a club that will be in the finals and that helps him. Dugan hasn’t had much of a chance to shine because of injury.”
Dugan and Woods started for Meninga during Australia’s successful World Cup campaign while Graham came off the bench having made his Test debut earlier in the tournament.
There is also another player Meninga has not ruled out.
“Blake Ferguson is going well,” Meninga said. “All those players will still be in the forefront of our thinking. We won’t forget them. I’ll talk to all those guys at the back end of the year as we’re getting closer to the finals and selecting an Australian side. I will be giving them those messages around keep plugging away and remember the success we’ve had so far.”
Australia play a one-off match against New Zealand at the end of the season while discussions are advanced to play Tonga, possibly in New York.
Meninga will also have to anoint a new Australian captain following the retirement of Cameron Smith.
“We will leave that until we get into the back end of the year,” Meninga said. “You just don’t know what will happen and we don’t want to put pressure on the players yet. We need to make sure they are fit and healthy but (Greg Inglis and Boyd Cordner) are the frontrunners.”
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JOHN Sutton will be presented his commemorative jersey for tomorrow’s game 300th game, against Wests Tigers, at a special lunch today at Souths Juniors.
Sutton has already come into possession of a pair of personalised boots from his sponsor Nike, with “Sutto 300” down the side, for the game.
The Wests Tigers were stunned about the “turf war” story breaking during the week and the noise it made around the game.
As the Tigers prepared to celebrate Robbie Farah’s 250th game for the club the NRL came in over the top and ruled that the 30m lines on the field will now be marked “300” in recognition of Sutton’s achievement.
Rabbitohs owner Russell Crowe added to the theatre by blocking the Tigers official account on Twitter.
The Tigers are the home team, and hire the ground, but apparently the NRL owns the playing surface — meaning they can put whatever signage they want on it.
Given all the fuss for Sutton’s 300th game, and Farah’s 250th, it seems everybody is too afraid to also mention the game is Dane Gagai’s 150th in the NRL.
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IT will be 1050 days since Robbie Farah last ran the Tigers out onto the field.
Much has changed since Farah captained the Tigers in their round 26 clash against St George Illawarra in 2015.
But ahead of his 250th match for the club tomorrow night, Farah is expected to lead the side out onto ANZ Stadium where the club is planning to pay tribute to its most capped player. There will be a big-screen tribute while the club is also planning a post-game presentation.
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NEWCASTLE continue to keep an interested eye on the clearance house known as Canterbury.
Coach Nathan Brown said on NRL360 Monday that the club has money in the bank and is keen to secure an experienced forward to lead them to their next era.
The war chest has focused the Knights on Dave Klemmer, as revealed earlier this week.
It will be interesting to see how the Bulldogs respond. Klemmer previously considered one of the few players off-limits from poachers, and when the Knights made a quiet phone call they were laughed off, but there might soon be a problem.
Klemmer is modestly priced compared to other contracts at the club, which makes him a valuable asset at Belmore.
But it might also make it more likely that Klemmer would field interest in him after previously declaring he would not leave.
The Knights believe Klemmer will bring exactly the kind of experience and grunt needed to educate their young forwards.
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PARRAMATTA’S best chance for a resurrection might begin off field.
The Eels are keen on securing North Queensland football manager Peter Parr to turn around their fortunes.
Parr, whose junior area is Newcastle, is a quality operator but the Eels will be hard-pressed to sway him.
He is close to Cowboys chairman Laurence Lancini and after an average season in Townsville feels a debt to help the Cowboys bounce back.
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SAM Kerr says she “just went for a good time” but walked away from Thursday’s ESPY Awards in Los Angeles with the trophy for Best International Soccer Player.
At a star-studded event at the Microsoft Theatre, Matildas star Kerr added another piece of silverware to her bulging trophy cabinet.
It wasn’t all green and gold though, NBA basketballer Ben Simmons was beaten by the Utah Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell for Best Breakthrough Athlete and Stephanie Gilmore lost out to snowboarder Chloe Kim for Best Female Action Sports Athlete.
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SEEMS it will be at least two more weeks before Manly’s appeal against its salary cap penalty is known.
The two days planned for the appeal blew out to four days and, since, chairman Ian Callinan has asked for written submissions on several topics.
Callinan will decide the Sea Eagles’ fate along with former players Mike Cleary and Noel Kelly.
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FORMER Canterbury and St George Illawarra fullback Luke Patten was involved in his 400th NRL game last night. Patten has worked as a video referee since retiring in 2010 after playing 282 top grade games. He was in the bunker for last night’s clash between Parramatta and Canterbury.
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THERE is something about an old flame.
About 30 former Dragons cheerleaders attended a reunion at Kogarah Oval last Sunday. Among the group — now called the Flames — were those who were on the sidelines for St George’s 1985 grand final loss to Canterbury.
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THE Newtown Jets are planning for their annual Beer Footy Food Festival next Saturday at Henson Park. More than 6000 people turned up to the event last year which coincides with the Jets-Penrith clash which kicks off at 3pm.
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THE Dragons are on the verge of landing Canberra’s Fijian winger Mikaele Ravalawa.
The 20-year-old has featured for the Raiders’ feeder side Mounties this year after being part of Fiji’s World Cup squad last year.
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THE Panthers will have an old-new big screen at Penrith Stadium next year. They have purchased the screen from Subicao Oval in Perth, which will be delivered in time to kickstart the NRL 2019 season.
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SPOTTED: State of Origin coaches Kevin Walters and Brad Fittler were in Perth this week to promote next year’s Origin game at the new Optus Stadium, where they ran into Federal treasurer and avid Cronulla fan Scott Morrison.
On the Perth Origin, more than 30,000 tickets have already been sold for game two, meaning Blues fans need to hurry if they are on the lookout to secure seats.
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VOTING is open on the Men of League’s most memorable grand final. The grand finals were chosen by an elite panel but now the public will have the final say.
Voting will be on a 1-10 ranking system with the first, second, and third most popular grand final to be unveiled at the Men of League gala dinner at the Westin on Wednesday August 15.
This week we take a look at the respective 1955 and 1965 matches.
1955: South Sydney 12 defeated Newtown 11.
The Rabbitohs were on a 10-game winning streak heading into the 1955 decider as they which also doubled as a replay of the 1954 decider which the Rabbitohs won.
Their last loss that season was to Newtown in round 10 with the Bluebags having beaten South Sydney in the only two matches they played in the regular season.
The Rabbitohs played without Clive Churchill and Greg Hawick and trailed 8-4 at halftime in front of more than 40,000 people at the SCG. A strike-back on the play the ball and kick through by Jack Rayner saw Col Donohoe score in the corner before Bernie Purcell kicked the goal to give the Rabbitohs a one-point lead.
The Bluebags had a chance to win in the dying stages when Gordon Clifford missed a long-range penalty goal.
1965: St George Dragons 12 defeated South Sydney 8.
A crowd of 78,056 watched a star-studded St George side which included the likes of Reg Gasnier, Billy Smith, Norm Provan, Johnny Raper and Graeme Langlands. win their 10th consecutive premiership.
People literally hung from the rooftop of the SCG with some estimating the crowd to be about 90,000.
The Rabbitohs had won the two previous encounters that season and scored the opening try of the grand final.
To cast your vote log onto and to purchase tickets to the dinner.