Blues coach Michael Maguire has finally explained his pre-Origin II “glass houses” comment.
Speaking to media after NSW’s series-levelling 38-18 win over Queensland at the MCG, Maguire said he was only playing a straight bat to criticism of Joseph Suaalii for his game one hit on Reece Walsh.
“I just called out what I saw,” he said on Wednesday night.
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“We’ve got a really tight group within us. I felt there were probably a few things thrown in a certain way, and I just called it out. That’s all I did.
“I think … the team supports each other, looks after each other – you probably saw it out there.
“We’ve got get the discipline around that right, but at the end of the day, I was just stating a fact a few things were said about one of my players.”
In a press conference last Monday after announcing his Origin II squad, Maguire was asked if he was upset at suggestions Suaalii had deliberately taken Walsh out.
“You’ve got to make sure you don’t live in glass houses, that’s all I’ll say,” he said.
It’s still unclear exactly who Maguire was referring to – media, Maroons players, or staff.
There was some suggestion Maguire had taken a passage out of the Wayne Bennett playbook and made a throwaway comment to take attention away from Latrell Mitchell on his Origin return.
If that was the case, it worked. Mitchell was sensational on his return to the Origin arena, ending the night with a a try, nine runs for 75m, and a try assist.
Elsewhere, Maguire said the decision to send Liam Martin and Patrick Carrigan to the sin bin in the second was “weird”.
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Martin and Carrigan were binned following a scuffle in the 51st minute after the Blues forced an error.
Martin rubbed error-maker Jaydn Su’a’s head as other Blues rushed in to celebrate. Martin and Carrigan were at the middle if the ensuing scuffle.
After a Bunker intervention, Martin and Carrigan were given a 10 minute spell by referee Ashley Klein, who had only moments earlier warned players against taking matters out of his hands.
The double-binning left Origin greats bemused.
“We’ve seen grapples, we’ve seen pick ’em up and dump ’ems, we’ve seen Latrell chin someone, but you rub someone’s head and you go to the bin,” Andrew Johns said in commentary for Nine.
Maguire said the call was “an interesting one”.
“That was a weird call. But anyway, we move on.”
Martin was put on report twice in the match, but only cited by the match review committee for one offence – a late shot on Maroons skipper Daly Cherry-Evans in the 66th minute.
He was fined seven per cent of his match fee.
Latrell Mitchell and Val Holmes were hit with the same penalty for high shots on Xavier Coates and Payne Haas respectively.