Former NSW State of Origin skipper Paul Gallen has no regrets over his decision to retire from representative football despite turning in a heroic performance for Cronulla on Saturday.
Gallen showed why he still considers himself among the state's best forwards after almost single-handedly delivering the Sharks a 9-8 comeback NRL win over Canterbury.
With his team down by six with 13 minutes to play, Gallen fielded an in-goal grubber to avoid a line dropout that resulted in Gerard Beale levelling the scores three plays later.
The Sharks captain then produced a 25-metre run that set up halfback Chad Townsend's game-winning field goal and extended the Sharks' winning streak to three.
"That was two really big plays in particular that he pulled off for us. Having Gal back during this period, we got something out of him tonight, that's for sure," coach Shane Flanagan said.
Gallen played down his outing after the match.
"I just do my job every week to be honest. When you look at it, I probably made the same amount of runs as I normally make and same amount of tackles," he said.
"It's just sometimes you get lucky and one of them runs leads to a break and when I got out of the in-goal, it was just one of them things that fortunately happened for me."
The NRL game during Origin was Gallen's first for the club since being omitted from the game-one Blues squad of 2010, before eventually becoming a staple in the NSW line-up.
The 35-year-old recently admitted to still being capable of delivering at Origin level, but denied regretting calling stumps on his Blues career despite his lack of success.
Gallen won just a single series against Queensland in 11 attempts, however took solace out of influencing almost the entire current Blues squad.
"I still take a bit of pride in that NSW side. Bar Nathan Peats, I've had something to do with every player there. Jake Trbojevic is the other debutant and he was in camp last year," he said.
"So I've had something to do with all of them coming through.
"I can see good things for them. If I've got a small part to do with that, well I'll be proud and be really happy to see them lift the trophy at the end of the series hopefully."
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