How does a selector, who is running at a 9 per cent success rate, maintain his role for 11 straight years?

In any other sport, a selector who has won one series out of the last 11 would simply be shown the door. Told ‘thanks but no thanks’. But this is rugby league immortal Bob Fulton. The untouchable Bob Fulton. And by being untouchable, Fulton simply goes under the radar.

The problem with having a sole selector is once he is locked on an idea, and believes he is right, it’s very hard to change his mind. What was Bob Fulton’s idea? It was Paul Gallen.

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In June of 2014 Fulton suggested Paul Gallen was a future immortal.

“We talk about Darren Lockyer, Greg Inglis, Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston and Billy Slater as future Immortals, which is fair enough too,” Fulton said.

“It’s just that I’d include Paul Gallen in that company too. He’s the best NSW Origin forward I’ve seen”.

After losing the final match of the 2015 series 52-6, it was time for fresh ideas. Time to move Bob Fulton and Paul Gallen on. You can’t get a clearer indication that a 46-point hiding in an Origin decider.

However, if Bozo remained and with an inflated opinion of Paul Gallen, the captaincy wasn’t ever in threat of changing. So with a selector with a success rate of 10 per cent selecting a captain with a success rate of 20 per cent, is there any real surprise that NSW lost yet again?

They are lucky their success rates can’t drop much lower. Now Fulton sits at 9 per cent and Gallen 17 per cent.



NSW needed fresh ideas. They needed a captains talk, that when they heard it, wasn’t the same one they’ve heard for the last five years that often ended in a loss. They needed something else.

However, the got the same speech, and the same result.

And Bob Fulton remains as untouchable as ever.