Gordie’s set of six: Munster’s perfect Origin audition
QUEENSLAND great Gorden Tallis says Cameron Munster may have played himself into the Queensland No.6 jersey on Friday night.
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1 CAMERON Munster may have played himself into the Queensland No.6 jersey on Friday night.
I watched him closely against the Broncos and was very impressed by what I saw in his final Origin audition.
He’s just such a robust ball-running player. I saw Matt Gillett hit him hard and Adam Blair came up with some strong contact on him but he either beat their tackles or found a way to offload.
That was against two of the best defenders Brisbane have. To me, that says a lot ahead of the decider.
He was 18th man in Game Two so he knows the system. He can play in the spine, there’s no doubt about that. I wouldn’t be surprised if he becomes Johnathan Thurston’s successor when the team is named.
2 CRAIG Bellamy is the greatest modern coach we have in the game.
Over the past month, I have watched his team dismantle a number of big sides. I have watched as he rested four Origin players against the second best team in the competition and still came away with a golden-point victory.
On Friday night, I watched his side trample the Broncos, who were in third place.
His ability to reinvent himself and to keep on evolving is incredible.
He can turn players who are in the “too-hard basket” or unwanted by others into such good first grade footballers that we have Tim Glasby playing Origin.
Everyone is talking about that club’s future. It’s Craig Bellamy.
3 THE NRL made a massive mistake this week with their advertising for Sunday’s game between the Tigers and Knights.
I didn’t know what to think when they asked people to turn up for the “battle for the spoon”. It amazed me.
To market the game as “come and watch your team get the wooden spoon” doesn’t strike me as a tactic that will get people through the gates.
4 More than 50,000 people are expected to turn out at Suncorp Stadium to watch Jeff Horn fight Manny Pacquiao.
It’s amazing what positive spin can do for a sport.
All the experts say young Horn doesn’t stand a chance but the fans are going to converge at Milton anyway to see him fight.
He’s a humble kid who has done every bit of media he can to pump up this fight. It proves what can happen when you get your star players to promote something.
We wonder why we’re struggling to draw crowds to the NRL.
I hope Todd Greenberg looks at the boxing and learns from it.
5 THERE has been a lot of talk about whether the Cowboys can still go a long way this year without Johnathan Thurston.
In the past five years, the Cowboys won three of 13 games without Thurston. But this season, that is already changing.
6 I SPENT all of yesterday at the annual under-10 Gorden Tallis Cup in Townsville.
It is great to see the game growing in north Queensland. This event has been going for 15 years and it has grown from seven teams to 70.
A lot of it is thanks to what the Cowboys have done in the north. It’s pretty cool to have started a small competition that has now grown to 1000 kids.
Originally published as Gordie’s set of six: Munster’s perfect Origin audition
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