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Maroons veteran Dane Gagai is back in the Queensland squad ahead of next week’s decider, after earning a recall to the Origin arena following months of playing out of his skin in the NRL comp.
The 33-year-old hasn’t played for Queensland since his valiant contribution to the confidence-shattering 22-12 humiliation of NSW during an explosive Game III decider at Suncorp in 2022.
After having been overlooked for the entire 2023 Series, the 23-game Origin veteran is back, and says he has a point to prove.
And as Gagai has proven time and time again in the Origin arena, it’s all over for these Blues motherfuckers.
It will be no surprise to the people of Queensland if the Mackay Mauler ends up making the difference in the 2024 decider next week. Fans wait excitedly for the imminent full-field tries and closed fists that grace the field every time Gags throws on a maroon jersey.
Here’s 9 Photos of Dane Gagai playing Origin football that will make even the most die-hard Blues fan admit that NSW simply don’t get it.
- Gags bumping Luai in game 3, 2022. A man ten years his junior. Many have learn that hard way that it is not easy to bring down this man when he’s cooking with gas. Which is every time he puts on a Maroon jersey.
2. Gags scoring a full length try as a young fella with Hodges cheering him on the background, probably one of a couple that he scored scored that match.
3. Congratulating the young Cherbourg lad Selwyn Cobbo on his debut in 2022. Gagai passes down a breadth of knowledge that was imparted upon him by the original eight-in-a-row Queenslanders.
4. Gagai protecting the neck of young Selwyn Cobbo in that same series, while the classless grubs from NSW jeer at the injured teenager and continue their feeble attempts at jersey-punching in the background.
5. Gagai showing fuck all concerns about the theatrics of that tatted up eshay Klemmer in 2016. There’s been no opponent that has rattled him in all 23 matches of his career.
6. Gagai celebrating after yet another full field try in 2019. Again, probably one of several that he scored that match because NSW fans and NSW players simply do not get Origin.
7. Taking in some wisdom from Mal Meninga ahead of his Origin debut, Dane Gagai comes from a similar part of Queensland, and has a similar style of hardman football. This is brand of gameplay is foreign to NSW who just don’t get Origin.
8. Gagai hitting yet another corner try, after running the full length of the field, leaving the supposedly ‘fastest man on the planet’ Josh Addo-Carr in his dust to snatch another victory from a lacklustre Blues side.
9. Gagai bashing the fuck out of a shell-shocked Burton during that 2022 Origin decider that Queensland won. This was the last time Gagai played Origin, and in very similar circumstances, there is very little doubt about him humiliating the Blues in the exact same fashion.
