EXCLUSIVE | Mark Gasnier backs Manly superstar to make Blues Origin return
The Continuous Call Team
Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Talk to me about the opportunity the Blues have, and that is beating Queensland at Suncorp Stadium and creating a bit of history. Yeah, look, you know, we were the last team to do it in 2005 when we went up there under Ricky Stewart.
And it was ironic that we trained all week for this preparation that everything's going to go wrong. You're not going to get a call. Things are going to go against you. As it turns out, we ended up going, I think it was about 18 minutes straight, we defended our line for, for the first 18 minutes. And I'll never forget, Lockie put a kick in, Anthony Minichiello scooped it up. We went 80, 80.
Someone flopped on him, we got a penalty, took the goal 2-0 and then we ran away with it after that. But the point I'm making is it's different in the way that you have to be so ready for adversity because you can't hear each other on the field. Things are going to go wrong. Calls aren't going to go your way. And if you let it get to you, it'll affect your performance. So no doubt Madge will have them fired up. I think by all reports, their preparation has been really good.
I think the biggest thing in the past historically, if you look over Origin, in my opinion is that we've always tried to defend our way to victory. And that works in some stages, but you've got to get points on the board first. And I think we've missed so many opportunities with our execution. Game two changed all that. They executed really well. They had a lot more strike over the park. So unfortunately, Luttrell, by all reports, he's out. That's a huge blow.
In my personal opinion, I'd like to see Tommy go straight in there. I think he'd have a great combination with Zach on that right edge because Tommy naturally floats. I worked with him under Brad Fittler when we had Jack White in left center, Tommy Wright center in the origin. And he's such an intelligent guy. He doesn't bull crap. He knows what he'd be coming into. He knows whether he'd be ready or not. And if it was me and I was Madge and he said he was ready, I'd be going with him.