With Robbie Farah set to miss at least State Of Origin one with an arm injury, attention had turned to the players who might replace him at hooker for the Blues.
Michael Ennis’ name has been put forward, although I tend to think he is not the player he once was. Nathan Peats has been mentioned, and while its early days for him, he’d probably be the player I’d be looking to go with. Then there is one name that just horrifies me…
Kurt Gidley…
I feel like the Kurt Gidley State Of origin experiment is long since over. Having watched him play at hooker for Newcastle this season…I don’t even know that he is the best hooker Newcastle could select!
At times this season Gidley has been nothing short of terrible. He makes mistakes, he misses tackles and his service out of dummy half is poor. I can not believe he would be mentioned as a possible State Of Origin player.
Of course, Kurt Gidley is one of a number of players shown unshakable faith by New South Wales selectors over the years. While at one point he was a handy utility player, as he lost form and didn’t play all that well he kept being selected time after time.
It got to the point where he was given the New South Wales captaincy, and at one point was named captain while starting the game from the bench!
If New South Wales is so desperate that they even consider selecting Kurt Gidley, we might as well give up the trophy right now.
It would almost be as bad as selecting Mitchell Pearce at halfback!
