Please Explain

The winner of this year's premiership could come down to which coach swallows his pride and picks the players in their rightful positions.

For the life of me I cannot understand why Melbourne Storm have persisted with Greg Inglis at five-eighth. It defies logic! Here you have a wonderful attacking player who thrilled fans with his long searching runs that led to many a try last year, being totally bottled up at number six. The switch of positions has been a spectacular failure and will have contributed to the Storm's demise if they don't win the grand final. Coach Craig Bellamy and his team will pay the ultimate price if he maintains his stubborn attitude in regards to what has become a contentious issue.

Put Inglis to fullback where he belongs and Billy Slater on the wing or the interchange where he belongs. Inglis is far superior under the high ball, is a stronger defender and returns the ball better than his teammate. At this point I must say it had to be a gee-up Bellamy calling for Slater to be picked as the Australian fullback. He'd come in at about eighth in the pecking order behind the likes of Stewart, Bowen, Patten, McKinnon, Hodges, Hodgson and Hayne.

If the Storm want to give themselves the best chance of winning their second premeirship then the backline has to read:- 1) Inglis 2) Slater 3) King 4) Filau 5) Turner 6) Geyer 7) Cronk.

Unfortunately for Storm supporters, I don't think Bellamy is willing to admit he has erred in playing Inglis at five-eighth. It is a flaw in his character that is going to haunt Bellamy the rest of his career if Inglis produces yet another mediocre performance.

Balancing the ledger is the fact the Manly Sea Eagles are also guilty of not selecting their strongest available team. How is it you have New South Wales' finest halfback in your ranks and you pick him out of position at hooker. Go figure!

As an avid Queensland fan I was thrilled to bits that the Blues selectors continued to ignore the undeniable claims of the mercurial Michael Monaghan. Quite simply, he plays and New South Wales wins the Origin series. It is an indictment on the selectors that they refused to pick him. Give yourselves a triple!

Matt Orford is a quality number seven, but he is inferior to Monaghan in virtually every aspect of halfback play. What