Jordan McLean is the fifth-oldest Blues debutant after Tony Butterfield, Max Krillich, Hazem El Masri and Matt Prior. Find out what changed for the 30-year-old prop.
NSW coach Brad Fittler has revealed that Jordan McLean had been on his radar for more than five years after being asked to assess him by former Blues mentor Laurie Daley and urged aging players never to give up on their Origin dreams.
“Without a doubt I think his form over the last couple of years wasn’t that great, most probably because along with the North Queensland team, and they were finishing near the bottom end of the ladder.” After being a member of the Kangaroos squad for the 2017 World Cup, McLean joins a select group of players to have represented Australia before playing Origin.
“I think there is a lot of messages there for different players – if you are getting to 30 it is never too late, if you are a young person then playing in a successful team is the best way to go forward. Wighton missed the 44-12 triumph in Perth due to COVID and was expected to come back into the team but Fittler was loathe to drop Matt Burton from the left centre role and Talakai offers the ability to play as a middle or edge forward, as well as centre if needed.
“At the end of the day when I think about it that was most probably the smartest thing to happen,” Fittler said. “He was out for a couple of months at least and I thought he played really well. Like Payne I will look forward to seeing how he goes at the back end of the year.”
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