Greg Bird says Paul Gallen deserves to be labelled a NSW State of Origin great despite having only played in one interstate series win, arguing the legacy of the Blues captain was about more than results.
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Gallen and Bird have been among NSW's chief enforcers during a difficult period for the state, making their debuts within a year of each other in 2006 and 2007.
With the Cronulla captain announcing this will be his final series, Bird, back in Laurie Daley's squad after being left out due to suspension last year, is eager to send his former clubmate out a winner.
"Gal is a player that players want to play with and being his last [series] I know that he's going to give it even more. He gives it pretty much everything he's got every game but I think he's going to want to go out with one last hurrah," Bird said.
"Hopefully we can all play for ourselves but play together and send him out a winner. He's come through a pretty tough era. He's come through in an era where the Queenslanders had a great, red-hot side. It would be quite hard for him and I'm happy that we got one series win together. Hopefully we can make it another one before he hangs them up."
Bird is adamant that Gallen's series win/loss record in NSW teams did not mean he shouldn't be regarded as one of the state's finest players.
"The performances he's put in, the fact that he's led the team, and the nature that he's led the team ... rugby league is not all about results," he said. "I know the results are the ones that are written down and kept in history. It's about the performances that you put in as well and I think he can hold his head high. He did everything he could for NSW as a state and as a team. No matter the result I think he should be touted as one of our best performers, leaders, captains."
As for his own representative future, the Gold Coast Titans back-rower said Gallen's impending NSW retirement did not make him consider his own Origin mortality.
"I haven't really got [a plan]," Bird said. "I'll just keep playing while I'm good enough to make the team. If someone else comes in and is in better form than me and can do a better job then that's the nature of rugby league. It's not an entitlement my position in this team, it's a privilege. I just go out and play as hard as I can while I can."
That includes applying pressure to Maroons playmakers in much the same way as he put the heat on his NSW teammate James Maloney when the five-eighth ran to the line during a recent NRL game against Cronulla.
That tackle earned him a one-match ban but he doesn't plan on backing off on Wednesday night.
"You can't let [Queensland] run riot on you. If you give them all the time in the world ... they're some of the best halves in the comp, and they're going to cut you to shreds," Bird said.
"You've got to cut down their time and hopefully rush their passes a little bit. Hopefully I don't walk along that line and end up with a charge over my head but I've just got to go out and hit them as hard as I can ... hopefully legally."
