Blues halfback Nathan Cleary has played down a theory from NSW great Andrew Johns about the balls used in State of Origin, after all three goal kickers had an off night.
Cleary missed all three of his conversion attempts, although they were all tough kicks. His only success with the boot came in the form of a penalty goal at the ninth minute.
But it wasn’t just Cleary who struggled. Zac Lomax was unsuccessful with his only attempt at conversion, while Maroons kicker Valentine Holmes was way off with his conversion attempt from the sideline.
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Like Cleary, Holmes only kicked one goal for the evening and that was a penalty goal on the stroke of halftime.
Speaking on Channel 9, Johns claimed the balls used in Origin were “a little bit fatter” than those used in the NRL, as they have more graphics on them which can change the shape of the ball.
“Zac Lomax, he missed it by a mile and that was a sitter,” Johns said.
The Blues legend then went on a mission to get to the bottom of the situation.
“I’m going down to the sheds, I’m going to ask Nathan about it in the fair dinkum department whether the balls were a little bit different,” Johns added.
“Even the sound of the ball when they were kicking, it just sounded different. Mitchell Moses kicked one (dead) in-goal, he never does that.”
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But when Johns asked Cleary whether the balls were different, the NSW playmaker wasn’t making any excuses.
“The last one I kicked was definitely just an f up,” said Cleary.
“I think I’ll reflect on that and I think there was a bit going in my brain, I had so many things I wanted to do. I’ve thought about being back in this arena so often and so many things I wanted to do and sometimes I need to calm down a bit and go through the processes.”
