Brad Fittler channels Mal Meninga

“I see a lot of Mal in Freddy in the way he backs blokes and sticks with them,” Hagan told the Herald. “Mal always valued players who were under the radar like a Nate Myles, who ended up playing 20-odd Origins, and was very much the cornerstone of the pack.

“Mal and Freddy have certain players they value and who resonate with the team and what it all means. Nathan is clearly one of those players for Freddy.

“People who haven’t worked with those high-level players, it’s a slightly different arena, and Mal, Freddy and Wayne Bennett understand it implicitly.”

Hagan said Meninga and Fittler were prepared to make the tough calls, just as Fittler did with Luke Keary last week and Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker after game one last year. Hagan recalled Meninga dropping David Shillington in 2013 when he was one of the best props in the game.

But they both had a fantastic ability to stick solid and ignore the constant selection debates.

Hagan said Cleary deserved Fittler’s loyalty, ”especially if he has been the best halfback all year”.

He also backed Cleary, 22, and 30-year-old Walker to make a play for the World Cup squad in 12 months time, provided the tournament went ahead and there were no unforeseen injuries or setbacks.

“Nathan came within a shandy of winning the Dally M, and Cody would also have to be in the conversation,” Hagan said. “If you think of all the good ball-players like Cody, guys like ‘Locky’ [Darren Lockyer], JT [Johnathan Thurston] and Cooper [Cronk], they were all playing their best footy on the other side of 30, which Cody will be. Mal will pick the best person in a position, irrespective of their age.”

Loading

Daly Cherry-Evans is the Test incumbent and lost no admirers with his dominant performance in Adelaide. He will only strip fitter given he had not played for six weeks leading up to the 18-14 victory.

Hagan remains a huge fan of Cherry-Evans because of his big-game experience.

“Daly has also put a bit of pressure on himself from the point of view he wants to win a series as a starting halfback, and knows Queensland were in a similar [1-0] position last year,” Hagan said.