NSW coach Michael Maguire and Queensland great Gorden Tallis have taken the gloves off in a frosty TV exchange.
There has been blood between the two since Maguire’s “glass houses” crack at Billy Slater after Game 1, and tempers again flared during an interview on Fox Sports.
Speaking about the chaotic brawl that saw bans handed out to Haumole Olakau’atu and Cam Murray, Maguire again defended his players.
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“I just saw a really well-connected group,” Maguire said.
“Look, everyone’s going to have their opinion about that space but I know both those players, especially Cam Murray, he looked down the sidelines and probably saw one of his own, one of his brothers there on his own with a few people surrounding him, and he just reacted to the situation and that’s off instinct.
“When you’re very close to someone your instincts kick in and I think that’s what the boys did and they obviously got involved there.
“But no one was hurt and we all move on, but what an unbelievable sort of spectacle it became because of the emotion and what Origin really means to people.
“It’s a shame they’ve got bans. I guess they’ve got to look at the game in a certain way but, from my point of view, I am very pleased for my players for how they looked after each other.
“But I do get you’ve got to be careful in that situation.”
But Tallis, unhappy with the players’ involvement, took objection.
“Hold on, hold on. A two-week ban? If I did that in under -16s in Townsville I would have got a 12-month ban,” he raged.
“If I run off the bench to get into a fight when I was playing rugby league, I would have got a 12-month ban, probably. How is it fair two weeks?
“So in all country footy and junior footy, you think it’s fair? A bloke (Olakau’atu) in a suit getting into a fight?”
Maguire hit back.
“Look, Gordie, I’m not saying it’s fair, and I agree with you Gordie … I’m not disagreeing, I agree with you, but what I am saying is when you build a bond with a group of people you’ve just got to be aware of the situation,” Maguire said.
“But for all the kids out there, definitely not, you can’t be doing those sorts of things.
“But from the point of view of a coach and how you see a bond between a group of people, it was obviously the moment in time.”
It is not the first time Tallis has taken objection to Maguire, and he was furious after the “glass houses” crack at Slater that followed the Reece Walsh incident Game 1.
“If Madge wants to have a go at another coach, it should be about his coaching career, not about his playing career, because when Billy talks about a guy getting targeted, he’d know because there’s no player that was targeted more than Billy Slater in his era,” Tallis said.
“All of us live in glass houses … actually, he wouldn’t know, he never played Origin.
“I played against Madge and he probably was never targeted, no one even knew he was on the field.”
