several big omissions<\/a> for next week\u2019s game at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. It ends his run of 17-straight games for his state where he has scored 11 tries.<\/p>\nBut he won\u2019t have the chance to snatch the outright try-scoring NSW record on July 8 after rookie Jack Bostock was brought in to replace him by coach Laurie Daley, who said To\u2019o was down on confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo doubt he would be disappointed, but he\u2019s taking it well. It\u2019s all part of the journey and I\u2019m looking forward to having him this week for us,\u201d Cleary said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like he\u2019s been playing all right, but Laurie\u2019s got to pick the team he thinks is going to do the job. No one\u2019s ever guaranteed their spot, nor should they be, so that\u2019s the way he\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blues have opted for a towering backline with Bostock (194cm), Stephen Crichton (193) and Mark Nawaqanitawase (190) all considerably taller than To\u2019o, who is listed at a generous 182cm on the Panthers website.<\/p>\n
His shorter stature hasn\u2019t been a major issue for his club or state in the past, although Queensland winger Jojo Fifita was able to fly above him for a try in Origin II. <\/p>\n
\u201cProbably the highlight that everyone\u2019s looking at is the aerial sort of thing,\u201d Cleary said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBizza (To\u2019o) hasn\u2019t got any shorter, and over many, many years, that question\u2019s always been thrown up.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one\u2019s ever got it over him in the air. In game two there was one obvious try there, but there were a few other things going on there. <\/p>\n
\u201cBizza is an absolute legend and a champion player, and he\u2019ll bounce back for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
To\u2019o has been below his best over the past month, with the metre-eating winger making several errors in the Origin opener.<\/p>\n
But he was still able to make more metres than any other player that night to show how valuable he is to the team. <\/p>\n
\u201cBizza has had an unbelievable career, and the bigger the game, the better he goes,\u201d Cleary said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI guess it\u2019s just that sort of situation with the Blues at the moment where they\u2019re looking for answers to try to get a better performance out there. There are a lot of good players to choose from and there are a lot of good players in that team. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just the way Loz (Daley) has gone here, and I\u2019m sure Bizza will be fine. I\u2019m looking forward to having him playing for us this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to have those guys that easily could be in that Origin team (playing for us). <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s sort of mixed feelings, I must say. I\u2019m not really sure how to think of it too much. I\u2019m definitely not standing here going \u2018I\u2019m so glad they\u2019re playing for us\u2019 because in my heart, I\u2019d love them to be playing for the Blues. But you\u2019ve got to take it how it is and we\u2019ll gladly accept them playing for us this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
To\u2019o will be there on Friday against the Rabbitohs when the Panthers look to end their two-game losing streak.<\/p>\n
The ladder leaders couldn\u2019t hold on to the ball in Townsville and will field a new-look back row with Scott Sorensen and Luke Garner set to replace Liam Martin (Origin) and Isaiah Papali\u2019i (head knock). <\/p>\n
Injured duo Casey McLean and Mitch Kenny are expected to return after next week\u2019s bye, with Penrith unlikely to make any moves before the June 30 deadline. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been super happy with the season,\u201d Cleary said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last couple of weeks we\u2019ve definitely lost our edge a bit, but we\u2019ve had a great year and our best footy has been very good. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just looking forward to getting through the middle of this year and setting our sights for the end of the year and finding our best footy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally published as \u2018Hasn\u2019t got any shorter\u2019: Ivan Cleary backs Brian To\u2019o to bounce back from shock NSW axing, shuts down myth about his star winger<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Panthers coach Ivan Cleary is confident superstar winger Brian To\u2019o will bounce back from his shock axing from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,50661,5098,761,762,158,192994,5357,38350,85,6405],"class_list":["post-768946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brian-too","tag-ivan-cleary","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-nsw-blues","tag-panthers","tag-selections","tag-sports","tag-state-of-origin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768946","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=768946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}