It’s Friday and the weekend is almost here, so The Gurgler editorial team decided they needed some filler for a Friday, something light-hearted, preferably sporting based. Something quick and easy to balance out all the stats-heavy sporting onslaughts usually available. This week because of the final State of Origin clash for 2023 and Clint Gutherson’s small role at the end we go for the Five Great State of Origin Cameos.
2023 GAME THREE – CLINT GUTHERSON
3 MINUTES
Winners are grinners we guess.
Selecting Clint Gutherson – a fullback – on a bench with a hooker and two forwards didn’t seem like a good idea. And with Gutherson playing just three minutes, it probably wasn’t. But lucky for NSW that head coach Brad Fittler got all the other big calls right.
Still, it wasn’t a bad three minutes with one run for three metres, a Kick Defused, one tackle made and he had the ball at final siren.
He might be back for more, but probably not. Still, he has his three minutes of State of Origin cameo for 2023 to add to his previous three matches for the Blues.
2023 GAME ONE – NICHO HYNES
12 MINUTES
Will probably go down in history as one of the most infamous State of Origin cameos of all time.
We love Nicho Hynes and hope he gets another chance at Origin level. And hopefully he’ll get a full 80 minutes, and in his right position.
Hynes was thrown ion in Game One into the centres to replace Tom Trobojevic who had to leave the field, and sadly those minutes coincided with NSW losing the lead and the all-important game one to a Queensland side with a player down.
Not that many fans blamed Nicho, but he sure did carry the can, as he was dropped for the rest of the series.
His stats ended up being 1 run for three metres. One tackle made, one crucial tackle missed. Plus a handling error.
He’ll be back and dominate one day we hope. For now, it’s an interesting State of Origin cameo.
1991 GAME THREE – KEVIN WALTERS
0 MINUTES
Lost in all the hype of Wally Lewis’ final State of Origin game was future Queensland Origin coach Kevin Walters not even getting on the field in the series decider.
Queensland hung onto a 14-12 lead to win the third game in front of their home fans, after which Wally Lewis announced his retirement. With such an important game to be won, Walters wearing number 14 didn’t get on the field.
Walters played 20 State of Origin games either side of the no-show, and coached Queensland for four seasons, so it wasn’t all bad.
1997 GAME TWO – AARON RAPER
0 MINUTES
At least Kevin Walters’ zero minute effort was surrounded by many other minutes. Poor Aaron Raper’s Origin career didn’t.
Maybe it was all the excitement of the 15-14 win for NSW masterminded by Tommy Raudonikis where he later joked that he had “forgotten” to use Raper (from this Fox Sports article).
Sadly Aaron Raper doesn’t feature in the State of Origin player list for NSW on the excellent Rugby League Project website, because he technically never played.
2011 GAME THREE – KEITH GALLOWAY
9 MINUTES
To be honest we could have picked any of the great cameos in this Fox Sports article, but we could only just remember the name Keith Galloway, let alone realised he played for NSW.
His NSW Origin career lasted just nine minutes in the 2011 series’ final game where Queensland won 34-24, coming off the bench, and going back to it pretty qucikly.
But the Wests Tigers man would be hard done by just to class him as an Origin one hit wonder. He went on to play five internationals for Australia that season alone, as well as over 200 NRL games for the Wests Tigers.
