NSW Blues legend and Triple M’s own Ryan Girdler joined The Rush Hour with Gus, Jude & Woodsy after his former side’s 38-10 loss to Queensland Maroons in game 1 of this year’s State of Origin.
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Girds was asked about his opinion of newly-elect captain Jake Trbojevic only playing 29 minutes.
Though the 2003 NRL premiership winner stated that once Joseph Sua’ali’i was sent off for his hit on Reece Walsh after only seven minutes, the game-plan was forced out the window.
“It was really hard,” said Girdler.
“One the rotation got mixed up after going down to 12 men, they were looking for guys, especially on the edges, guys with more lateral movement, quicker around the field.
“Jake was there to lock things up but unfortunately the game just didn’t work out that way where [NSW] could’ve had a lot of big guys just hanging around the middle.”
Girdler also added a defence for Blues head coach Michael Maguire after he received some criticism for how he handled 73 minutes of footy, down a man.
“I think it’s hard to judge.
“I know there’s been a lot of people judging him for the way he used his bench and I’m sure he’ll learn from it.
“But once you go down to 12-men, you don’t plan for that.
“I think it was tough.”