Mitchell Moses Ruled Out, Ethan Strange Dad Leaves Cleary Carrying NSW
Mitchell Moses being ruled out of Wednesday night’s State of Origin opener has left ethan strange dad pressure on Nathan Cleary, because NSW now has to lean on one halfback for its kicking game. That is a narrow workload against a Queensland side with more than one club-level kicker to spread the load.
Cleary and the Moses gap
Nathan Cleary has effectively become NSW’s entire kicking game, which puts every clearing kick, attacking option and late-set decision on his right boot. Mitchell Moses was the only genuine alternative in the squad with that responsibility, so the Blues lost their second layer before the series began.
Queensland does not face the same problem. Cameron Munster, Sam Walker, Kalyn Ponga and Harry Grant all handle general play kicking duties for their clubs, while James Tedesco rarely kicks for the Roosters and Reece Robson is not a genuine long-kicking threat. NSW no longer has a like-for-like fallback if Cleary is rushed into errors.
Round six blueprint
Round six offered the clearest warning sign. The Bulldogs rushed after Cleary all night, coming from the inside and out, and that pressure left the Penrith playmaker second-guessing himself. If Queensland wants a template, that is it: force him to play earlier and less cleanly than he wants.
That same round-six lens makes the Moses loss harder to ignore. When the pressure comes from both directions, a second kicking option usually keeps the attack moving; NSW no longer has that release valve, and Cleary has to absorb every kick-heavy possession on top of the usual Origin traffic.
Ethan Strange numbers
Ethan Strange’s most recent clash against Cleary’s Panthers showed why he is not the same answer. He finished with two kicks for 33 metres, while Ethan Sanders had 21 kicks for 660m in the same match. Strange’s strength is his running game, and he is largely a back-up option for the Raiders’ game management, not a direct replacement for Moses.
That leaves NSW with a simpler but riskier plan: protect Cleary better, or expect Queensland to keep turning his kicking decisions into a grind. The Blues can survive a few forced kicks; they cannot afford a night where their only long-range option is also the player under the heaviest pressure.
