World News ‘Not powder puffs’: Maroons respond to Carroll’s sledge Blog

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Queensland players have responded to former NSW hardliner Mark “Spudd” Carroll’s claim that the Maroons forwards “wouldn’t scare kids in a creche”.

Writing in his column for online newspaper The Nightly, Caroll described the Maroons as “a bunch of powder puffs” ahead of Wednesday night’s decisive State of Origin series match at Suncorp Stadium.

Caroll, who played seven Origin games for the Blues and was a fearsome and uncompromising forward, was salivating over NSW’s 38-18 win over Queensland at the MCG in Game 2, which the Blues dominated.

Carroll criticised the Maroons’ decision to skip Gold Coast heavyweight David Fifita for the decider and took aim at the Maroons pack.

“These Queensland strikers wouldn’t scare children in a nursery,” wrote Carroll

“Without Fifita there is simply no fear factor.

“They have a lot of workers like Lindsay Collins, Reuben Cotter and Pat Carrigan, but no X-factor. I thought Fifita was brought in to play a role like Spencer Leniu for NSW, a power forward who outwits defenders.”

Upon hearing Carroll’s comments and in light of other criticism of the team, Maroons prop Moeaki Fotuaika said Queensland’s forwards were ready to take on the Blues and were definitely “not wimps”.

“That gives us the motivation we need to go out in game three and play better defensively in the middle. We’ve played through game two again and we know what we need to improve,” Fotuaika said.

“Everyone is allowed to have their own opinion, but in the team that Billy (Slater) has put together in this forward group, everyone does their job and everyone has their role.

“We know we’re going to have to be a lot more aggressive on defense on Wednesday. So for us, it’s about going in there and being aggressive.”

Despite Carroll’s comments, Fotuaika said the Maroons had the personnel to take on NSW up front. “Absolutely. Look at the attacking line. There’s (Felise) Kaufusi, Patrick Carrigan, Reuben Cotter and they’re tough to beat defensively,” Fotuaika said.

“I know exactly when I’m on the other side, I’ll look out of the corner of my eye to see if the guys are defending.”

Maroons centre Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, who plays in club football alongside the Dolphins and Queensland enforcer Kaufusi, also contradicted Carroll’s assessment.

“(Kaufusi) has a lot of mixed-breed behavior and I think he can scare some kids too,” Tabuai-Fidow said.

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