Blues great dumbfounded by Fifita call; Slater hits back at 'unfair ...

NSW five-eighth Jarome Luai has hilariously been dragged out of the water at the Blues’ recovery session at man-made surf park URBNSURF.

Whilst all of his teammates were doing their best to catch a wave on a surfboard on Tuesday morning, Luai took a different approach.

He jumped into the surf with a bodyboard, but it seems Penrith doesn’t have many beaches outside of ‘Pondi’, a lakeside swimming spot in Sydney’s west.

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The Panthers superstar was spotted holding on to a lifeguard’s rescue tool, being dragged along the side of the wave pool to safety.

“My life flashed before my eyes, can’t believe I’m alive. there’s no beaches at Penrith,” Luai said.

Meanwhile, Fox Sports News’ Jim Callinan said: “Fun and games for most, maybe not for Jarome Luai. The kid from Penrith maybe hasn’t done a lot of surfing in his days growing up in Sydney’s west”.

The NSW squad completed a recovery session at the wave pool on Tuesday before they travel to the Blue Mountains to their Fairmont Resort camp.

ENFORCER BAFFLED BY SLATER’S FIFITA CALL

Former Blues enforcer Mark ‘Spudd’ Carroll has been left confused by Queensland’s decision to leave out in form Titans star David Fifita for Game III.

Fifita was widely tipped to come back into the side considering the Maroons pack was outplayed and outmuscled by the Blues forwards at the MCG in Game II, but coach Billy Slater again elected to overlook the damaging Titans back rower.

“I can’t believe they’ve left out Fifita,” Carroll said on Monday night’s episode of NRL Tonight.

“He’s been fantastic for the Titans.

“The last three game has been highlighted by the resurgence of Dave Fifita.

“Dessie (Hasler) knows how to play this guy.

“I thought he was put back to school in his game and he’s done that but at the end of the day, I don’t care.

“Just worry about New South Wales and what we’re going to do to Queensland (next Wednesday).”

BLUES STAR SENT FOR SCANS

The Blues are sweating on the fitness of Bradman Best after reports the Knights star was sent for scans.

Best was named in Michael Maguire’s Blues side for the Origin decider after Latrell Mitchell was ruled out with a serious foot injury.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the Knights sent Best for scans for a “hamstring concern” with results expected after midday Monday.

Bulldogs star Matt Burton has reportedly been added to the squad as cover as 18th man.

Best made his one and only Origin appearance in Game III last year.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JULY 08: (L-R) Connor Watson, Bradman Best and Mitchell Barnett pose during a NSW Blues State of Origin media opportunity at NSWRL Centre of Excellence on July 08, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

BILLY ‘CLOSES RANKS’ IN SURPRISE MOVE

Queensland coach Billy Slater has come under fire for cancelling his squad’s traditional media day, distancing the Maroons from journalists ahead of the 2024 series decider.

Historically, the day after teams are named both have open media opportunities which includes one hour of access to every player from both states.

The Maroons held a media day at Suncorp Stadium before the series opener, and then in Toowoomba during their fan day ahead of Game II.

Meanwhile, their NSW counterparts hosted media at NSWRL headquarters in Sydney Olympic Park prior to both games and will do so again on Monday.

Only two players will speak to reporters on Monday, while The Daily Telegraph is reporting the NRL could step in to change Slater’s decision.

A source told News Corp: “Slater always talks about Queensland being the people’s team and how they represent five million Queenslanders. Yet now he’s closing ranks on the very media people that are a conduit to the Queensland people.

“To me, this suggests Billy and the Maroons are feeling some heat.... I’ve never seen a Queensland coach cancel an open media session. I cannot remember Queensland ever doing this before.”

For former NSW star Wade Graham, Slater’s decision is a “funny one”, referencing Brad Fittler’s attitude to media during his coaching tenure.

“A big criticism of Freddy (Fittler) in the back-end of his term of coaching at NSW was the way the players sort of distanced themselves from the media and it was polar opposites when I first had the opportunity,” Graham said on Triple M on Sunday.

“Freddy brought me back in 2019 or 2020. It was really accepting. It was wide-open. The message was if you don’t want to do an interview, just sing.

“You’re not doing the interview talking to the journalist. You’re doing the interview and talking to NSW fans so just put a smile on your face, represent NSW in the right way, tell your story.

“They want to hear how you’re feeling going into a decider at Suncorp and tell the fans because that’s who you’re talking to.

“That changed, we lost a couple of series and you feel like the world is out to get you. You want to bunker down… but I think the more open and transparent you can be, like you don’t have to go in there and talk about your game plan or light any fires.”

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Meanwhile, The Australian’s Brent Read added: “They’re saying they’re doing that because they’re nailing down and focusing on winning Origin III… I don’t necessarily like it but that’s what Billy has decided to do.

“I don’t think Freddy closed things down like this. He still had the open media session. Just the atmosphere around it was a bit more us against him.”

In a statement provided to News Corp, Queensland Rugby League officials attempted to explain Slater’s decision.

“This game, we have opted for no open media day on day one, just doing it a different way,” said a media spokesman.

“Best way to put it for us is that the group really wants to nail down those first few days in camp.”

Slater, meanwhile, was asked about the decision at his press conference on Monday and said it was a “little bit unfair” to criticise the Maroons for the move.

“I think you guys know the access to our players,” he said.

“We don’t get our full squad together until mid-afternoon today. They’ve got some commercial arrangements with the QRL that they need to fulfil and we’ve got to get some footy stuff done.

“You’ll have access to the majority of the players throughout the the 10-day camp. We saw out at out at Toowoomba with 8,000 people turning up... what we give to the people of Queensland, the access we give to to our players — you guys see that.

“You get to come down to Century Cove and watch our training sessions so I feel the access is is great.

“There’s some circumstances around players coming into camp at different stages today, that we couldn’t quite get everyone available but we do everything possible to get the voices of our players out to the people watching our game so I don’t think you read into it too much, I think it’s a little bit unfair.”

Slater also shot down suggestions the team had decided to restrict its involvement with media in a bid to remove any distractions given the way things went in Origin II.

“No, absolutely not. Absolutely not,” he said.

“Players talking to media was certainly not a factor in the performance from Game 2. That’s the first time I’ve thought of that when you’ve asked that question.”