Apparently Michael Maguire has been named as the new NSW Blues Coach. I reckon that's a really great move. He will go well in my opinion.
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"Must have been the trials I watched then."
"Yeah reckon Lock is his role. He has a pass able to be the link man taking on the line. He should be starting now Hopgood is gone for the year. Let him get minutes at the spot. He had a great finish to 2025."
"He's played one game? Out of position at centre as well."
"The game is exactly where the NRL wants it. They don't care about most fans. Melbourne needs to be successful every year to get viewership in Victoria, Penrith is in the growth engine on Sydney, especially considering their closeness to Bradfield.…"
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Best coach around for short competitions in my opinion, his style is perfect for an origin camp.
I was apprenshive at first as i feel an Origin coach should have played Origin, Gould being the exception. But as a head coach for Origin you need the no BS attitude of "We hate these guys". Freddy was a bit too friendly at the end there, Madge will be berading Queensland at every angle, those who do not agree are gone. Freddy, if he pissed a player off who was a decent name, he would coddle them.
Origin is a different beast to NRL, Jack Gibson never understood Origin he was one of the best coaches the game has ever seen. Madge worked for NZ, his hard style approach seems to ware off quickly in NRL, but in rep footy it wont ware off quick as it is stop start being with him, when it starts to get too much they are finished with reps then start fresh again later.
Hard nosed passion is something NSW has been lacking, not saying Freddy is not passionate but he is more laid back and relaxed over it, Madge will go down swinging.
I hope he hates all our players and zero get a call up.
Teams who have the most people in Origin invariably end up at the top end of the ladder and those players seems to always come back better for it.
We want our (eligible) players in Origin, it means we have great players in top form!
I actually thought Mitch Moses and Junior Paulo went backwards after being in origin this year. Don't know if it was due to Fittlers training regime or just tiredness.
Paulo is strange as statistically it was a solid year. His most metre average per game in his career, he had 13 more tackle breaks than 2022. But overall he was not leading by example as a captain. Obviously the club see more than we do with him as a leader, but Hopgood and RCG lead by example more than Paulo does.
But Origin did not really effect Paulo's form in my opinion. Moses though i felt came back into the team when the team itself was in free fall of form. All started with the Warriors match where we lost Gutho needlessly and then the week after had RCG and Sivo do stupid plays in frustration leading to them missing up to 3-4 games each. Had Moses played against the Warriors would our season be different? Perhaps but i do not think his game suffered after Origin.