'Should not be captain': Madge grilled over bizarre Trbojevic move
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I can wrap a New South Wales player, I've got one, I've got Xavier Coates, Tabuai Fadou, Talangi, Dearden, Cherry Evans, Cotter and Carrigan and Cobbo. I reckon they're all better players, put in a better performance tonight than the best New South Wales player, who I think...

was probably Teddy, but I can understand... Liam Martin played well, Spencer Lennyu. Spencer Lennyu was magnificent. But those Queenslanders in the back five or six were just magnificent tonight. Add to that, you know, the work rate of Patrick Carrigan and Reuben Cotter. That's

That's a special side. They did brilliantly well. And that's the thing, Darrell. I mean, it's a credit to Queensland. You can only play what's in front of you. They came up against 12 men. It could have got a lot uglier than it ended up with that full-time score of 38 points to 10. Look, New South Wales were brave, but...

They just have that class, and we saw some really classy tries scored. Hamasotabuifido with the hat-trick of tries, the three that he scored for Queensland. I mean, the list goes on. Even the Cherry Evans, he made the breakdown field, putting the kick through into the in-goal area. Xavier Coates there to put the ball down just inside the dead ball line. They're a classy football side. And let's give a rap to Billy Slater.

This is what, his third series? They've won game one in Sydney. They're on track to make it three in a row. He's a super coach. He is a super coach. He'll have to queeze their job for as long as he wants it.

But, I mean, don't tell me there's not going to be clubs out there chasing Billy Slater. He could almost name his own price, I reckon. But it depends on what he wants. I mean, he might just like the simple life. He's got a pretty cushy job with Channel 9. He's got his farm. He's got his horses. He's got his family. And then, you know, he gets to coach Queensland for

for, say, let's say 10 weeks of the year or whatever it is. But, you know, I know he's spending more time than that on coaching Queensland, but it's not a bad job. I don't know what it pays, but it's a pretty good job. He might just be happy to keep doing what he's doing. Well, Darrell, I've actually asked him the question. I co-host the Billy Slater podcast with him. I virtually ask him the questions. People listen to his answers. He's...

a great analyst in the game of rugby league. And I've said to Billy on numerous occasions when his name's linked to NRL clubs, I said, what do you want to do, Billy? Do you want to do it?

He says no. He says he's got the best job in the world at the moment. He's got a young family. He's got horses on his farm on the outskirts of Melbourne. He coaches Queensland. He gets to sit in a commentary box on the sideline on a panel. So he's getting the best of all worlds at the moment. And I just don't think he's in a position at the moment, especially with two young kids and everything he does in Melbourne, working with obviously the Storm and a couple of the AFL clubs,

he's happy where he is at the moment and pridefully so. He's got a great mix in his life. I agree. I just want to

You know, speak about the elephant in the room here, the coaching of Michael Maguire tonight. Jake Trevojevic, captain. Did he play the first 25 minutes? 25 minutes. OK, he's the captain, right? So he's the leader and he's the one they look up to. And when you're in dire straits like they were, he's the bloke you look up to. He takes him off after 25 minutes and puts him on with four minutes to go. What's going on there? Oh, mate, that's a huge question. That is... The question now is whether he could possibly either be in the team next time or...

whether he's captain. If he's going to be captain, give him some time on the field. If you're going to make a bloke the captain, the captain should be out there leading from the front. The captain shouldn't be sitting on the bench after playing 25 minutes in the first half. Mate, after everything I've been reading in the papers for the last few days about this great New South Wales sign, whatever, you watch what it'll be tomorrow. It'll be just a carve-up of the Blues. It happens every time they lose. They get carved up by the journalists.

and the coach will probably get carved up. And I'm probably part of it here, but I've got to say to Madge, and I like Madge,

Jake Draboyevich should not be captain if he's going to play 29 minutes of the game. And given what happened last year too, Darrell, with Nico Hines defending in the centres, why defend him in the centres? Exactly. And he was responsible for two tries. But, Darrell, if you can see that as a co-commentator in a commentary box on level three of the Western Grand Centre de Cour Stadium, what's Michael Maguire and his coaching staff doing downstairs? Mate...

When he went off, as soon as he moved Crichton over to the right side defensively, they looked better and they defended OK. But, mate...

And I love Nico, and I feel sorry for him, but, mate, he was just out of his depth, defending on the right side. It's exactly what happened in Adelaide last year. He played 12 minutes, and he got massacred, you know, by the press because he missed that tackle that led to the try. It might have been Tabuai Fadeu who scored the try in Adelaide. Well, they put him out in the centres. He gets fended off twice, and they score two tries. I mean, and I know he's a mate of yours, Pig, but the coach has got a bit to answer for, in my opinion, on how the Blues went tonight.

I really mean that. Jake Draboyevich is captain. I'll bring you in. He plays 29 minutes. What's going on? Well, I think the issue there was that when you lose a player in the centres, you've obviously got to sacrifice one of your middle players to move a middle to the back row, a back row to the centre. So you, in essence, play...

with two middles and not one. So that's where you miss the player. You miss the player in the middle. And I think because they had to do what they had to do by moving...

Angus Crichton eventually to the centres and then moving those players around that the other guys got a lot more time and unfortunately Jake just didn't get the minutes that he was probably going to get. Does it surprise you though when he's the captain? He's the new captain. It does surprise me a bit but I look at who played and Spencer Lenya was phenomenal. I thought he was their best player. So there is a bit of a like, well what do you do? Like

Unfortunately, due to the circumstances of losing a player in the first seven minutes, obviously through all their plans out the window, one thing I'll say, and just talking to a few of the other boys downstairs and coming up in the elevator, if they had have got sorted what they got sorted eventually...

quicker, maybe it would have been a little bit of a different story because it took them too long to fix what Big Man just mentioned and blew up about. Who's fault's it? That's the coach. And that's right. And that's the situation that they're in, that they should have changed that a lot earlier than what they did because Nico got put in the same situation that he was in

Last time. All right, well, stick with us. We'll take those press conferences for you. We'll hear what Michael Maguire's got to say. We'll also hear what Billy Slater's got to say. We're with you for the next, what, 45 minutes. Now, we're having a problem with our competition line, so I need you to ring the open line 131.

131873 for the player of the match competition. Apologies for that, folks. It's apparently an issue that we're having in the studio. So if you can give us a ring on 131873. The three players in the running for the player of the match are Ruben Cotter, Tom Dearden and Pat Carrigan. Ruben Cotter, Tom Dearden, Pat Carrigan will take the first three. Call us through right now. 131873. Don't call the prize line. You can call the open line on this occasion. 131873. Give us a ring.

and we'll find our player of the match for Harvey Norman. So, tidying up the details, 38 points to 10, Queensland over New South Wales. And, well, I think all of the energy was sucked out of the stadium seven minutes in when Ashley Cline, in our view, made the right decision to send Joseph Okuso-Swalee to the...

not to the sin bin, just a complete send-off. It had to. It had to be. Contact with the head by the shoulder. He rushed up out of the line. He's got a duty of care. You've heard that term used time and time again. So that's the reason why he finds himself in the spotlight with the Match Review Committee. So 131873, the number if you'd like to play the player of the match competition. 38 points to 10. Queensland over New South Wales. We'll take a break. Your calls are next and we'll also find a player of the match.