Making sense of the Mulitalo situation
Wherever you come down on this one, it’s safe to say everyone is feeling for Ronaldo Mulitalo, the 21-year-old who’s had his State of Origin debut ripped away from him at the last moment and been put at the centre of a storm.
Mulitalo was born in New Zealand and reportedly moved to Australia shortly before his 14th birthday. He spend most of the time after that in Queensland, going to Ipswich State High, where he played football and made the Met West rep side as a youngster. He also played U18 and U20 for Queensland.
So, let’s have a look at the eligibility requirements for State of Origin and try to sort this out…
As you can see, because he arrived in Queensland AFTER his 13th birthday and his dad didn’t play State of Origin (you have to wonder if this includes mums now that Women’s State of Origin is such an event) he’s ineligible according to these rules.
But I think we can all agree it’s been handled about as badly as possible.
This may have all been sparked by this tweet from Steve Mascord…
From the reports, NSW officials got a hold of the new of his potential ineligibility and had a word to the league. Mulitalo then stood aside, not wanting to be a distraction or, as some have suggested, be the cause of them potentially having a win stripped off them.
As Queensland rugby league megamind Peter Psaltis pointed out, between Mulitalo’s junior rep teams and his selection in the squad as a back-up before Reece Walsh got hurt, there were plenty of opportunities to raise this that didn’t force Mulitalo to step down at this late stage.
Rules is rules and all that, but I guess it really all comes down to whether or not you agree with the rules as they are.
Source:: ABC News
