ANY chance of the Queenslanders being in party mode, having already clinched the State of Origin series, and screwing up game three against NSW at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday night? No chance, says Paul Vautin, who played 22 Origins for the Maroons, and, most importantly, knows how good it is to clinch a series whitewash. "I was at the XXXX function attended by the team on Friday and I sat down and had some lunch with them," Vautin told The Big Wrap. "They've got their heads screwed on - they can't wait for this game. There are a few things that will ensure they are in the right mood to make it three-nil. It's the only game of this series at Suncorp, so it's important for them to give the home fans a win to celebrate. Plus, the first three series in this current run of success by Queensland were all won 2-1, and the players would love to get a whitewash. That's what people remember most about Origin results - when a team gets a clean sweep of the series. I was in teams that got whitewashes in 1988 and '89, and as coach in 1995, and it's a magnificent feeling. The players would love a slice of that. There's also been some speculation that it might be Darren Lockyer's last game for Queensland. I don't know if he's thinking of retiring from rep footy or not, but if he is - and the players know - they'll do all they can to send him out the right way. Even if they just think it might be his last game, it'll be enough. No, sorry, can't help you - Queensland to win again."

Blues' grey area

Once the smoke clears from another State of Origin series loss for the Blues and the NSWRL reviews the failed campaign, can we draw a line between the jobs of the selectors and the coach? There was a time when the selectors selected representative teams and the coaches coached them, but the line between the two has become increasingly blurred, to the point where you can't make it out at all now. It's just one big grey area, with the result that there is constant speculation over whether the coach got the team he wanted. How about the selectors give the coach the team they wanted? That's what they are there for, isn't it? Either that or forget about selectors and let the coach pick the team. It's got to be one way or the other.

High blow

Surely the NSW Boxing Authority will disqualify Billy Dib from his win in the WBO Asia Pacific title fight against Kenichi Yamaguchi on the Superboxer program for belting Yamaguchi while he was down. Yamaguchi did not appear hurt until Dib clocked him from above. The video shows that, while three punches from Dib had forced Yamaguchi backwards, much of the force was taken by Yamaguchi's arms as he covered up. He fell to the floor because his back foot slipped over the edge of the canvas. He got up wobbling from the effects of the late, late shot. Boxing is used to black eyes, but when you're trying to win some fans on television - the Superboxer series is being screened on One HD - the last thing you need is a farcical end to a fight and then a bunch of boofheads jumping into the ring and further inflaming the situation.

Strange reaction

Happenings in the NFL often make it to the NRL eventually, but this is not one we want repeated here or in a few years we'll be seeing some former star player shot dead by his girlfriend and leaving behind a wife and children. That's what happened to 36-year-old Steve "Air" McNair, the former quarterback for the Tennessee Titans and league co-MVP in 2003. Reaction in the US to the death of McNair, who was asleep on a sofa when he was shot twice in the head and body by 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi, who then turned the gun on herself, has been interesting. Fans on one hand want to celebrate his tremendous career, but on the other they are bothered by the choices he made towards the end of his life. That's the undeniable power of being a sports star. People take them to heart - even if they have never met them.

Inside the asylum

Jason Taylor's decision to spill his guts on the difficult period he had been going through as a coach after his South Sydney side ended a five-match losing streak by beating Penrith was a further indication of the enormous pressure coaches are under at the top level. Yes, I know, they choose to do the job and they are well paid, but they still feel an awful lot of the heat - from the fans, media and themselves. Yours truly has driven himself mad merely coaching the under-10s, so I imagine it must sometimes be like the lunatic asylum to end all lunatic asylums inside a top-flight professional coach's head. Taylor could have come out and said, simply: "We knew we had to lift and we did that." But, instead, he talked about how he had woken up the morning after his team's latest loss and realised his coaching career was staring him in the face, and that if he was going to become the coach he wanted to be he needed to change things fast. It was a revealing insight into the thinking of a relatively young coach and at the same time it sparked a reminder of how good at their jobs vastly experienced coaches such as Wayne Bennett must be to have stayed on top of things for so long.

Channelling O'Neill

The Big Wrap was reminded of how time flies when we went to the files to see how the Nate Myles incident stacked up against the other great atrocities in rugby league's colourful history. The nearest one to it, in type, was, of course, the effort by Julian O'Neill - one of the game's foremost serial offenders when it comes to off-field drama - who defecated in a shoe belonging to South Sydney teammate Jeremy Schloss after a pre-season trial game in Dubbo. That was 10 years ago and the incident left us with one of the game's great quotes, O'Neill having declared to a teammate that, "I just shat in Schlossy's shoe". Try saying that after a night of binge-drinking. But do you remember this? DNA testing was still a relatively new concept at the time and the then Souths president, George Piggins, declared he was prepared to have specimens of human waste that found their way on to a motel room wall - as well as into Schlossy's shoe - DNA tested to prove O'Neill was the culprit. Fortunately, it wasn't deemed necessary for the investigation to get that detailed.

WEEKEND WARRIOR: ISAAC DE GOIS

That was a massive defensive effort by the Knights against the Raiders."Absolutely. They had a lot of ball, and to keep them to one try was a great effort. We knew we had to be tough on our line to hold them out, and we did that."

What goes through players' minds when you lose your halfback [Jarrod Mullen] a few minutes into the game?"The play was still going on, so I didn't actually see him go off. But then I saw Zeb [Taia, a second-rower] at five-eighth, and I realised Jarrod was off. We missed him out there, but sometimes it's easier to deal with something like that on the run, because you haven't got time to think about it. Ben Rogers went from five-eighth to halfback and did a great job."

Joining Newcastle has turned out to be a very good career move for you."I'm enjoying my footy, and the lifestyle up here is great. We've got a good team, and the local people have been really friendly towards me. As soon as I moved in, the neighbours were welcoming me to the district."

Are you keeping an eye on those NSW hookers? They tried Robbie Farah, and now they're trying Michael Ennis. Isaac De Gois has got to be next."We'll see what happens. I didn't think Farah did a bad job, but we'll see how Ennis goes. He's a tough player. I'll keep doing what I'm doing, and hopefully the rest will look after itself."