Canberra Raiders playmaker Jack Wighton has thrown his full support behind Brad Fittler to stay on as NSW Blues coach.
After the Blues lost in humiliating fashion to Queensland in Brisbane, many critics have called for Fittler to resign as coach - losing his third Origin series in four years.
Having played under Fitter on the Origin arena for multiple years, Wighton has backed him to stay on as the state's head coach.
Insistent Fittler deserves a second chance, he all discussed the possibility of club coach Ricky Stuart taking Fittler's place.
โHe (Stuart) has already done it, but I think there's no one better than Freddy,โ he said viaย NCA Newswire.
โAll the boys love Freddy and everyone forgets about the wins that he's pulled out of nowhere.
โThat's the game of rugby league where everyone is quick to jump the gun and they forget about the good things. I think that's crap.
โI love Freddy. He gave me my first opportunity so there's always a lot of love for him, so he's the man for the job in my eyes.โ
With Game 3 around the corner, Latrell Mitchell and Tom Trbojevic will be unavailable to compete, meaning the likely options in the centres will be made up of Stephen Crichton and Campbell Graham.
Despite retiring from representative football earlier this season, Wighton admitted that he second-guessed himself at times but decided to stick true to his retirement.
Recently, many fans have called for the World Cup winner to make a return back to the State of Origin arena, but instead he delivered a simple statement regarding his future for NSW.
โNot this year,โ he replied when asked if he'd return for Game 3.
โIt's definitely been hard (to watch) because the body feels good. There's a lot of passion and pride sitting there and watching them.
โI pinch myself trying to work out if I made the right decision or not (to retire) and if I'd done it too early, so it's hard at times.
โBut one of the reasons why I did it is because I have all the faith in the young kids coming through. The other night we were unlucky to lose โTurbo' early so we had guys playing out of position.
โPeople are critical and jump the gun with that, but the team has been there both times to win the game, and sometimes that's just football.โ
