{"id":389131,"date":"2026-04-20T18:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/389131\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T18:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:39:11","slug":"hard-line-nope-johns-immediately-dismisses-leotas-origin-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/389131\/","title":{"rendered":"“Hard line, nope:” Johns immediately dismisses Leota’s Origin dream"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rugby league loyalty, Andrew Johns has slammed the door shut on any suggestion New South Wales should be granted special dispensation to field Moses Leota<\/a> in State of Origin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Leota’s eligibility case hinges on timing, and the timing simply doesn’t add up.<\/p>\n

The power front rower relocated from New Zealand<\/a> to NSW several months after his 13th birthday, falling short of a rule that requires a player to have been living in the state before that milestone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Sydney Morning Herald revealed the NRL<\/a> would at least hear an appeal from the Blues<\/a>, but Johns isn’t interested in entertaining the idea for a second.<\/p>\n

“Hard line, nope,” he brutally said on Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.<\/p>\n

“Where do you stop? Four months, six months, nine months? Where do you stop? (The cut off is) 13 (years old), that’s it.”<\/p>\n

NSW’s desire to find a workaround is understandable given the circumstances, as Payne Haas’ injury on the weekend has left a gaping hole in their front row stocks, and Leota would have been a timely remedy.<\/p>\n

Queensland Maroons<\/a> coach Billy Slater<\/a> was equally unmoved, invoking the ghost of Origin eligibility disputes past.<\/p>\n

“Ronaldo Mulitalo<\/a> missed an Origin jersey years ago because of this exact situation,” Slater stated.<\/p>\n

The debate comes amid a broader rehsaping or the Origin eligibility landscape, with the ARLC recently changing Origin eligibility rules to allow players to play Origin and represent a Tier 1 nation other than Australia<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That shift has thrown a clutch of names into the selection conversation on both sides.<\/p>\n

With Game One set for May 27 in Sydney, Laurie Daley’s NSW selection headaches are mounting.<\/p>\n

If the chorus of voices from Johns to Slater is anything to go by, Leota won’t be the solution.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby league loyalty, Andrew Johns has slammed the door shut on any suggestion New South Wales should be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-389131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}