Immortal and True Blue Andrew Johns said the criticism of Westpac NSW Blues fullback and skipper James Tedesco over his State of Origin Game One performance was "clueless" and "laughable".
Speaking on Channel Nine's Sunday Footy Show today, Johns said Tedesco's stats showed he was one of the busiest and hardest workers for the Blues on the field.
"People coming out and bagging James Tedesco are embarrassing themselves," Johns said.
"It just goes to show how little they know about the game.
He's NSW captain, he's been one of the best players for the last five or six years... there was a stop-start nature to the game that made it very hard to get some flow in the middle of the field."
There were 14 penalties (NSW led 8-6) in the match won by Queensland 26-18. But NSW had more runs (201 to 162), made more metres (1,734m to 1,452m), more post-contact (505m to 387m), more kick-return metres (249m to 136m) and busted out of more tackles (36 to 31). Tedesco had the most metres of any NSW player with 217.
"For them to be bagging James Tedeco is absolutely clueless, ridiculous, I was laughing about it... I just can't believe people would be putting the heat on our captain and not only that, the best player we've had for so many years. It's laughable, absolutely laughable.
"I don't know where it comes from ... but how could you even say that. He's one of the best players for the last five or six years; he competed so hard on Wednesday night."
Tedesco also drew praise from Australian coach Mal Meninga, who said NSW fans turning on the World Cup-winning Kangaroos captain was something Queenslanders would not do to one of their players.
"It’s emotional bullshit,” Meninga told The Sydney Morning Herald. “I actually thought Teddy’s effort levels were fantastic the other night – he tried his heart out.
“Teddy always tries to get a feel for the game. He would have felt the energy levels were down in his team and he tried to lift those levels; he’s the captain and takes it upon himself to make a difference," Meninga said.
“If there was a Test this weekend, Teddy would be our captain and fullback.”
