Blues under fire for selection call that ‘doesn’t make any sense’
Updated . First published
Luke Keary has expressed his disbelief around the NSW Blues selection process, questioning the decision to bring Knights back-rower Dylan Lucas in for one State of Origin game, only to drop him for the decider.
Lucas was a surprise inclusion in game two, coming in to replace in-form Manly wrecking ball Haumole Olakau’atu on the edge for the Blues.
Dylan Lucas was dropped after his NSW debut. Getty
The selection call didn’t pay off, with Laurie Daley’s side going down 44-24 and forcing the series into a decider at Suncorp Stadium.
As a result, Daley swung the axe on multiple players - most notably winger Brian To’o, who was left out in favour of debutant Jack Bostock.
But it was the decision to drop Lucas and replace him with both Liam Martin and Olakau’atu in the side that had one-time Blues representative Keary up in arms.
“That’s the bizarre one for me,” Keary said on The Bye Round Podcast.
“No one will speak about it, because it will just go away … but it’s just like, what is going on? It doesn’t make any sense to any person involved in the game at all.
“Then he’s just been shafted - yes they [Olakau’atu and Martin] provide more, but I also think he [Lucas] was very hard done by.
“You brought a rookie in, he’s only just really just kicked off his NRL career and speaking about him as a really good back-rower in the NRL, onto the wrong side or the other side of the field to what he has ever played on.
“They played him for 80 minutes and then didn’t pick him in the next game.”
Keary claimed it was standard practice for NSW, when it was pointed out that he played his lone Origin game in the same colours, despite hailing from Ipswich.
“Yeah one game, same thing - it’s what happens, they do it all the time,” he said.
The three-time NRL premiership winner also believes it will be difficult now for Olakau’atu to back himself in the Origin arena - especially after the reason for his initial axing was leaked to the media before game two.
“Haumole played that game and they go rid of him and now they’ve brought him back and that’s the other thing - he [Daley] is gonna have to get these players back on board too,” the champion Roosters playmaker said.
Haumole Olakau'atu was left out in game two. NRL Imagery
“He’s obviously told Haumole why he didn’t pick him - which is fine, Laurie doesn’t have to tell any of us - but the issue is, there’s journos who have reported that they dropped him because he was lazy and things like that, which I don’t think is true.
“That means someone inside that camp has told people outside and that’s the issue. As a player, you walk back in and know subconsciously he doesn’t trust me.”
Olakau’atu told The Sydney Morning Herald after his game three recall that the reason he was dropped centred around effort areas, while coach Daley refused to go into the details when asked by media on Monday morning.
