‘Lost control’: Damning Blues indictment

A 10 point lead was wiped out as the Maroons went on to record the 18-14 victory and take the 1-0 State of Origin series lead.

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The dismal second half showing left several Blues greats seething with Andrew Johns leading the charge in calling for Luke Keary to be dumped by coach Brad Fittler.

“I think that he (Walker) comes in for Luke Keary,” Johns told Channel 9.

“After what I saw tonight over the last 15 minutes, 20 minutes, Cody Walker has to start.”

Johns added: “Luke, defensively tonight, looked a little bit vulnerable on that side of the field”.

His comments were backed up by his brother Matty Johns who believes Walker should be in the starting line-up as well as naming a star Melbourne Storm player who should be included.

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“I think there will be changes, I agree with Joey, Cody Walker has got to come into the game,” Johns told SEN.

“The trigger for NSW is Damien Cook. When he takes off and clears the markers and gets away things start to happen.

“In the first half they really centralised their attack, Nathan Cleary and Luke Keary were playing with great directness, NSW then started passing the ball east to west and that’s where we lost it.

“We totally lost our focus. In the first half I really liked the performance by Nathan Cleary and Luke Keary but the knock on them will be that they lost control of the game.”

The reasoning for bringing Walker into the starting role was due to his relationship with Cook, according to Johns.

He also suggested having Storm star Ryan Papenhuyzen on the bench and injecting him into the contest as the game “starts to loosen”.

“I would be going with a bit of combination with Cook (at hooker) and Cody Walker (at five-eighth), because when they play up tempo and Cook gets out of dummy half, nobody is better at playing with him than Walker,” he added.

“I’d be putting Ryan Papenhuyzen at No. 14 and as the game starts to loosen I’d play him in the middle.

“That can be problematic as far as defence goes, but I think he’d cause more problems for Queensland than they would pose for him.”

Injuries have already played a role in the State of Origin series with Blues back-rower Cameron Murray and Maroons young gun AJ Brimson would ruled out for the final two games.

Murray suffered a hamstring injury with Brimson suffering a lisfranc ligament injury.