The plight of Luke Keary not Jason Taumalolo should mean Origin rules change
The Greg Inglis fiasco has had unintended consequences and the ARL Commission need to fix it.
Forget Jason Taumalolo for a moment, because his absence from State of Origin is far from the most glaring flaw in the eligibility rules.
If the ARL Commission want to get Origin right, or at least tidy up some of the rules that govern which state has the right to select certain players, they need to look at the curious case of Luke Keary.
Keary was born in Queensland. He spent the first 10 years of his life in Queensland. He grew up supporting Queensland. He worshipped at the altar of Queensland legend Wally Lewis.
He talked about how much he liked watching Darren Lockyer and Allan Langer, the latter because he hailed from Ipswich just like him.
He was a member of the emerging Maroons. He only ever wanted to play for Queensland, to the point that former Maroons coach Mal Meninga took up his cause and the Queensland Rugby League took his case to former NRL chief executive Dave Smith.
The QRL failed, Smith stood his ground, the rules dictated he was a New South Welshman and he was left with little choice but to play for the Blues if he wanted to experience Origin.
When we talk about Origin eligibility and changing the rules that were designed to ensure there was no repeat of the Greg Inglis fiasco, Keary is the biggest failing.
He should be playing for Queensland. In much the same way Inglis should only ever have played for NSW. As for Taumalolo, he should be an afterthought in all this.
He made his decision a decade ago when he opted to play for New Zealand. His choice was made then, albeit some would have you believe under some duress.
He was young and felt obligated to play for Tonga, which meant he had to make himself available for New Zealand. Regardless, that should end the conversation.
Otherwise, we can make him available and concede that Origin is no longer a selection trial for the Australian side. Just a glorified All Stars game.
The desire to play for the Kangaroos no doubt played a part in Keary feeling pressure to pledge his allegiance to NSW. His plight is even more frustrating when you consider how easy it is to fix.
Birth place should be given priority, providing a player with the right to choose for whom he plays. In Keary’s case, he ticked four of the five boxes for NSW. The most important one – in which state was he born – came up Queensland.
At that point, Keary should have been asked who he felt an allegiance too. He should have been given the choice. Instead, he was left with no choice. Play for NSW or turn his back on Origin. It exposed a flaw in the system that the commission needs to address.
So rather than waste time on Taumalolo, a player who should be deemed ineligible for Origin because he has already played for the Kiwis, Wayne Pearce and his fellow commissioners should address the most glaring oversight in Origin qualification.
Even if it does come too late for Keary.
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