Jamie Lyon knocked back Blues: Bellamy - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Jamie Lyon knocked back Blues: Bellamy

24/06/2008 07:38:36 PM Comments (0)

NSW coach Craig Bellamy says Blues selectors overlooked Jamie Lyon for the Origin decider because the Manly star snubbed them for game two.

Sea Eagles fans have been up in arms all series with fullback Brett Stewart the club's only NSW representative despite Manly's ladder leading form.

Test prop Brent Kite has been controversially overlooked and halfback Matt Orford remains on the outer but the omission of Lyon as replacement for injured centre Mark Gasnier has left many scratching their heads.

But, according to Bellamy, Lyon turned down the chance to join the Blues in Origin II when Gasnier had fitness concerns and NSW decided to show faith in Canberra's Joel Monaghan who joined the team camp last time only to be asked to leave four days later.

"With the Jamie Lyon thing, it didn't come out in second one but Jamie had the chance to come into the camp for the second one when (Mark) Gasnier was under a cloud," Bellamy told Sydney radio 2KY.

"But he knocked that back. He told us he didn't want to play rep footy."

Bellamy said Kite and Orford were discussed but could not be squeezed into the Origin III side as selectors showed faith in the team which did the job in game one.

"Kitey was very unlucky. He was very high in discussions," said Bellamy.

"And again with Matt Orford he is unlucky as well. But you could say the same thing for (Parramatta's) Brett Finch.

"There's always people who are unlucky when they miss out. There's probably three, four or five guys who are extremely unlucky that they have missed out.

"But at the end of the day we can only pick 17 and the 17 we have picked, we reckon they are going to get the job done best."

Brought to you by AAP AAP © 2024 AAP

0 Comments about this article

Post a comment about this article

Please sign in to leave a comment.
Becoming a member is free and easy, sign up here.

« All sports news