Paul Kent

But Billy backed off straight away.

And it's the only time since he's been Origin coach that Billy's taken a step backwards.

Billy also...

under this regime it's funny the way there's a little insight in the way things work i talk about upsetting people i dodged a bullet uh luckily enough which doesn't sound like me to be fair but i got i got i got approached to write the story over 10 years ago now probably probably about 10 years ago about the fact that neil henry was really the queensland coach of not malman inga

And if you remember, there was a story in the Telegraph which had screenshots of Mallard just standing up the back of the Queensland dressing room over to the side he was with his arms folded like this, doing really nothing.

And Neil's up with the whiteboard and he's there talking to all the players in the middle of the semi-circle that they always form.

Yeah, but I was approached to write that story

and politely declined thank christ uh and it had an enormous part because if you remember that's when mal came out and said called new south wales rats and filth and mal took it very personally very personally and and it it that whole series became something very personal because the queensland players

They took offense on Mal's behalf and it really set the fuse going there, lit the fuse.

So yeah, I could have been part of that.

Thank God I wasn't.

I said, no, I said, I'm not going to go near that story.

I can only imagine who put you up to that anyway.

But someone else wrote it.

They lost the first game.

Two series though or three series?

They lost the previous three series.

And so New South Wales, to try and make it seem fairer, said you can have Greg Inglis.

How did that go for him?

Yeah, it all changed from that moment on.