{"id":754277,"date":"2026-06-23T04:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T04:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/754277\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T04:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T04:12:15","slug":"state-of-origin-2026-paul-gallen-urges-nsw-to-get-behind-blues-for-decider-column","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/754277\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin 2026: Paul Gallen urges NSW to get behind Blues for decider; column"},"content":{"rendered":"

We need to get behind our state and support our team.<\/p>\n

Everything\u2019s so pro-Queensland<\/a> at the moment! Yeah, they\u2019ve done a great job in the second half of game two<\/a>, but we were 40 minutes away from taking the series, and we led the game at half-time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Paul Gallen.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

Everyone was saying how we shouldn\u2019t have won game one and we only won it because Kalyn Ponga got sent from the field<\/a>. The fact is he deserved to get sent.<\/p>\n

Just because he got sent off didn\u2019t mean Queensland had to lose the game. We fought our way back in. It didn\u2019t make their wingers drop the ball. It didn\u2019t make them miss one-on-one tackles.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve earned the right to go to a decider, and as New South Welshmen, should be more positive and more supportive of our team and what they\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s so much talk at the moment about how good Queensland are and how good a job Billy\u2019s done<\/a>, and he\u2019s done a great job. \u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not trying to take that away from him or them. I\u2019m not even trying to be disrespectful towards them.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m just trying to drum up support for our state to get behind our boys.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re going into an Origin decider, the biggest game you can play other than the grand final, in the most daunting environment you can go into.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s been more talk about changes rather than getting behind the side.<\/p>\n

I think changes will be made but I\u2019m not sure how many. We need guys who have been there before and done it.<\/p>\n

With Latrell out of selection<\/a>, I think we need Ethan Strange in the side. <\/p>\n

He can play centre, he got man of the match in the under-19s Origin<\/a> game only three years ago playing in the centres.<\/p>\n

\"Gallen<\/p>\n

Gallen has 24 appearances for NSW.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

He\u2019s exactly like Laurie Daley<\/a>, exactly like Brad Fittler<\/a>, a big, strong, running five-eighth who can definitely play in the centres.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d be putting him in there with Stephen Crichton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We should keep Mitch Moses<\/a> in the team at six. Our kicking game with Mitch in the side is a lot better.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got the top two best ranked kickers in the competition. I think Liam Martin is also an absolute must. That\u2019s only a few changes. I don\u2019t think we need to make wholesale changes. <\/p>\n

At the end of the day, it\u2019s game three of an Origin series. To go and make wholesale changes, you\u2019re almost starting again.<\/p>\n

To be honest, whoever they pick can go on and win the decider, they just need to come together as a team.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also been too much talk about Daley up north.<\/p>\n

The fact that Queensland journalists come out and said that the Blues<\/a> players don\u2019t like Daly and they fall asleep in his talks is ridiculous. <\/p>\n

No one was quoted, it\u2019s just a totally made-up story and that\u2019s the way they go on. And to think that we just sit back and let it happen – it shits me.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think anyone in the NSW team is against Daley. <\/p>\n

And if there\u2019s a bloke who plays in the New South Wales side that wants to go and talk about a coach like that – they\u2019re a f—–g rat, and they should be outed.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m just sick and tired of the talk about our coach.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s gonna be probably the biggest game in history, so as a state\u00a0we need to get behind our team and support them.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read people saying Queensland has been more dominant in the two games – cut the bullshit.<\/p>\n

Queensland won the first half in game one. We won the second half in game one. We won the first half in game two. Queensland won the second half in game two. That\u2019s 50\/50. We\u2019re right there.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got an opportunity to go to Queensland in the decider and win the match. Get behind the boys. Get behind Laurie Daley.<\/p>\n

Daley\u2019s on the list as one\u00a0of NSW\u2019s greatest ever players. The animosity towards our own people annoys me. It tends to happen a lot with us, but not so much with Queensland. We eat our own, and this is the problem.<\/p>\n

\"NSW<\/p>\n

NSW coach Laurie Daley.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

The only opinions that matter on team selection and how the team plays is that of Laurie Daley and his coaching staff. So we can either sit back and shit-can it or we can get on the front foot and go and support them. I\u2019m saying let\u2019s get on the front foot and go and support them.<\/p>\n

Look I understand, Origin was built on the back of Queensland in the beginning. But we keep allowing it to be all about Queensland. The media, players, everyone, we just keep allowing it to be all about Queensland.<\/p>\n

This needs to change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We need to get behind our state and support our team. Everything\u2019s so pro-Queensland at the moment! Yeah,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-754277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}