I stand corrected feathered friend
Thank you
But I still stand my ground for DCE being a scapegoat and this Media posts puts it in perfect perspective
‘P**s-poor form’: Former Blues enforcer blasts ‘grub’ Slater in stunning spray after DCE call
“Honestly, I cannot believe it,” he said on Triple M’s ‘Breakfast with Beu and Woodsy’ show.
“Kurt Mann will come onto the bench, Tom Dearden will start at halfback so they’ve dropped their skipper Daly Cherry-Evans. This hasn’t been done since Trevor Gillmeister in 1996.”
Woods particularly thought the selection bombshell was “so funny” given Slater’s infamous “we’re still Queenslanders” line when asked about making changes last year.
“To me that’s p**s poor form from Billy Slater,” Woods said.
“After game one in your press conference you said it wasn’t about the personnel, you said you didn’t play too well.
“You’ve come out and axed your captain Daly Cherry-Evans. You’ve said it wasn’t a scapegoat, but mate it’s a scapegoat.
“Everywhere you look you’re not used to getting hammered in the media. I think he did respond to backlash, the pressure and criticism got to Billy.
“He’s lost three (games) in a row, which is unheard of for Queensland, they’re going to Perth, which is a flat track for NSW.
“You look at this squad, Cherry-Evans should be there, I’ve heard his commentary around it that he got his chance in game one.
“Well, there should be a lot of other players that should be moved on too, because you look at guys like Harry Grant — he’s 0-6 starting at hooker. It’s very hard to play behind a forward pack that’s not going forward. You look at Moe Fotuaika, he had 39 metres in the first game.”
Woods didn’t stop there though with the two-time Dally M Prop of the Year calling Slater’s character into question — and suggesting he should be in the firing line if he loses this year’s series.
“It’s so funny because you watch these blokes up north and they say we don’t get Origin and they use this pick and stick mentality. Well Billy you’ve just turned on your skipper,” he said.
“I want to see the real Billy Slater come out — the grub that we know of. This is a bloke who kicked John Skandalis in the head and got a six-week suspension. Everyone wants to go ‘oh he’s such a nice bloke’.
“You’ve won your first two series’ as coach, you lost last series, you picked a side that we all thought NSW would win 13-plus — lucky NSW didn’t play well.
“If you lose this second series, does that mean you’re going to get sacked? Because Kevvie Walters got sacked after two series losses and he only coached four.
“There’s a lot of pressure on Billy Slater. I watched his body language in the press conference (after game one) and he not a man that is confident in what he’s doing at the moment.”
Woods’ co-host Beau Ryan agreed that Slater has not been his usual cool, calm and composed self lately.
“I’ve never seen him rattled,” he said.
“When he did that press conference last year, saying ‘we’re Queenslanders’, that was the first time I’ve ever seen him lose any type of measure he had. He was rattled by it.
“He doesn’t usually respond to backlash, he’s set in his ways, he’s very professional, he has his methods. But it does feel like he’s responding to backlash and media.”
