Maroons become what they’ve always despised with gross disloyalty

The Queensland Maroons are turning into what they despised the most after making a ruthless call ahead of Origin Game I.

Kalyn Ponga of the Knights receives attention from the trainer during the round 12 NRL match between Cronulla Sharks and Newcastle Knights at Coffs Harbour International Stadium on May 20, 2023 in Coffs Harbour, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

COMMENT

Disloyalty. Players betraying the state for retirement. Man bags.

Somewhere along the line, Queensland have mutated in to the thing they hate most.

They’ve become New South Wales.

One look at their line-up for the series opener and it’s obvious this once-proud state is emulating the milky resolve of their southern counterparts.

The Maroons’ team unveiling on Monday was filled with selective loyalty, designer brands and blokes out of position, plus a heap of other trademarks of Blues culture they love to mercilessly criticise.

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While usually its Brad Fittler reading out the Wikipedia page of his latest smokey, this time it was Billy Slater using mental gymnastics to explain a side that violated the Queensland constitution.

Maroons selection announcements have been habitually banal over the years, with selectors opting since 1982 for pretty much the same side of Queenslanders bar the occasional TBC or centre from Kempsey.

This stability has stemmed from their unwavering commitment to ‘picking and sticking’, with established combinations a cornerstone of The Queensland Way.

Kalyn Ponga was left out of the Maroons team after a series of concussions. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Put simply, Maroons players best perform in the defensive line when they know exactly how many XXXX’s their inside man can chug shirtless on the bus between The Regatta and the Brekky Creek Hotel.

But come Adelaide, Queensland will have left 48 cans of knowledge behind in Newcastle with the savage axing of stalwarts Kalyn Ponga and Dane Gagai.

After everything he’s done for the state - including a heroic man of the match performance in last year’s decider - who would’ve thought Ponga would be cut adrift by a paragon of morality like Queensland simply because he played the ball wrong.

As for Gagai, this is a 22 game ironman who tirelessly churns out three good games a year, a braveheart who epitomises everything about a Queenslander playing in the Sydney competition.

But with his last-start bashing of Matt Burton being rewarded with exile, Queensland have committed their own Reagan Campbell-Gillard atrocity.

And worse?

The Newcastle speedster was overlooked in favour of Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, aka a fullback in the centres. Sound familiar?

Dane Gagai has given it everything for Queensland. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)

And what about Josh Papalii? By dogging the Maroons for a rival state (the ACT), he’s mirrored Jamie Lyon by giving up the jersey in favour of a regional backwater.

For shame.

Could you imagine if David Klemmer abandoned the Blues for the warm bosom of retirement? Probably not, mainly because we continue to inexplicably overlook him. But you can still imagine the righteous uproar.

Down here in the southern state, when we talk ‘Origin attrition’, it’s always about the erosion of trust.

We’re quietly going about our business axing stalwart Damien Cook without a second thought and undermining confidence in our own five-eighth by picking another five-eighth on the bench.

That’s because loyalty in this state is frowned upon, and we will always pick and flick through so many players there’s a sign-in QR code at camp entry.

Billy Slater has made some bold calls. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

But Queensland’s superiority has been forever invigorated by this, and now they’re stealing our bit.

They’re road-siding favourite sons like Gagai, Ponga and even the half-fit Kurt Capewell, a salt-of-the-earth tradesman who symbolises everything about a Queensland workhorse, i.e. he wouldn’t get within cooee of the Blues side.

As a New South Welshman, I can say this is a slippery slope Queensland are sliding down from which they may never recover.

It starts with a few callous betrayals and some wacky gambles, next thing you’re down eight series on the trot and picking a centre on the bench – right next to your skipper.

Dane Eldridge is a warped cynic yearning for the glory days of rugby league, a time when the sponges were magic and the Mondays were mad.

He’s never strapped on a boot in his life, and as such, should be taken with a grain of salt.