While marvelling at the dynamic playmakers on display in the first week of the NRL finals, I got a sudden shock. Here we have Mitchell Pearce, Todd Carney, Jamie Soward and Terry Campese wreaking absolute havoc in the biggest games of the season - but aren't they from the state that three months ago couldn't find a halfback or a five-eighth? Was it only half a season back that New South Wales were picking Brett Kimmorley and Trent Barrett for Origin? Weren't the Blues the team that couldn't find a playmaker born after the 1970s?

Surely Carney's main achievement this season, among the Dally M and other awards, has been to show up the absolute myopia of the Blues selectors and coach, who, a few short weeks ago, did not rate Carney in their half-dozen options for a halfback or five-eighth. Pearce only scraped in late. Campese and Soward seem not to have been considered. Robbie Farah, a grand final-winning hooker five years ago, is again showing he is streets ahead of the field. Yet he too didn't play Origin. So what the hell happened there?

Well, we kind of know what happened. New South Wales got spooked. Craig Bellamy and the selectors, struck catatonic by fear of the Queensland backline, chose teams to limit the damage. They stacked the Blues with veterans - Matt Cooper, Barrett, Kimmorley, Timana Tahu, Jamie Lyon - and solid, predictable key position players - Kurt Gidley, Michael Ennis - who held out the grand promise of not losing by too much. And that's what they did. They didn't lose by too much.

One of the problems with Origin has been that we talk about it in May to July and not in September. But September is where class reveals itself. By class, I mean the type of talent that transcends the weekly ups and downs of form and fitness that seem to make an impression early in the season. By September, I mean the time when the cream rises to the top. Everyone in NSW seemed to be angry with the coach and selectors in June and July, when the fifth straight series was lost. They should be angry with them now - when we're seeing who the best players in NSW are.

The other real shame with NSW is that some of these very gifted players, such as Campese and Farah, have been given a run in Origin but the selectors quickly lost faith. Campese had one game last year. Farah's opportunities were fleeting. Michael Jennings, another of the brilliant new generation, was ranked the seventh best NSW centre this year. It's a scandal, and if the Origin series didn't prove it, the finals series certainly does.

So, whoever next year's coach and selectors are, and we can only hope that they're all new: here's the message. Carney, Pearce, Soward, Campese, Farah, Jennings, Dugan. Okay? Got it? Now hold that thought ...