Jul 18th, 2019

Jul 18th, 2019

NSW coach Brad Fittler has warned the Maroons about trying to poach Roosters star Luke Keary, urging his interstate rivals to keep their hands off the Clive Churchill Medalist.

According to the SMH, Maroons officials are gunning to have Roosters five-eighth Luke Keary re-classified as a Queensland player.

Despite both state league bosses insisting Keary can only play for NSW, the Ipswich native has written to NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg requesting his NSW status be reviewed.

Fittler caught wind of the Maroons attempts to poach the Origin hopeful during an interview with Macquarie Sports Radio, and urged the Maroons to stay away from the yet to be Blues star.

“You took Greg (Inglis), you’re not going to get Luke, mate,” Fittler said on Thursday morning.

QRL chief executive Rob Moore confirmed Keary has tried to change his status to a Queenslander after spending years idolising Allan Langer as a child.

Luke Keary was to make his NSW debut this year if not for concussion issues. (AAP)

“When Luke first came on our radar, the eligibility criteria were in place and we looked at them in terms of his case and agreed he was a NSW player. He wrote to Todd questioning the decision and we looked at the criteria again and reached the conclusion he didn’t meet the criteria to be a Maroon.”

The Ipswich junior who moved to Sydney with his family aged 10 and played in NSW junior and school competitions but went back to Queensland for one year where he played State Cup.

Under eligibility rules approved by the ARL Commission in December 2012, Keary is a NSW player. However the Maroons want to overturn the rule because former NRL chief executive Dave Smith put the plan in place.

Keary attended a Queensland Junior Emerging Origin squad camp in January 2013, only weeks after the ARLC had approved the new eligibility rules. Smith joined the NRL as chief executive the following month.

Keary fulfills four out of the six eligibility criteria to be a NSW player because NSW is the state where the majority of his year's playing rugby league from Under-6s to Under-18s were spent; NSW was the state that he spent most of his schooling years and he also was first selected for Harold Matthews for the North Sydney Bears. In addition, he was a member of the NSW Independent Schools team at the Australian Championships in 2010.

The six point eligibility test was implemented to avoid cases like Greg Inglis playing for the Maroons based purely on Inglis playing his first senior game of football in Queensland.