Farah's dream of an Origin triumph Robbie Farah has been handed the Blues captaincy after Gallen was ruled out with a foot problem. ROBBIE Farah has played the dream sequence in his head. In the absence of Paul Gallen, he is called upon to lift the State of Origin shield after NSW wins the third and deciding game at ANZ Stadium next week. But would he pass the honour on to his injured skipper? "I just want to win," said Farah, who was yesterday handed the Blues captaincy when Gallen was ruled out with a foot problem. I don't care. But there's no doubt Gal will be up there either way. I will probably be up in the crowd, crowd surfing or something else while someone else lifts the shield. If NSW manages to win the Origin series with victory over Queensland next week, it will have overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. Even before Gallen succumbed to a foot injury yesterday morning, they had lost Jarryd Hayne and Blake Ferguson, the former through injury and the latter through stupidity. But Gallen's absence is a stake through the heart, his exit coming on another dramatic day in what is fast becoming a dramatic camp for the Blues. Coach Laurie Daley had braced for the worst when Gallen rang him early yesterday morning with concerns about the foot injury he received in Origin II. Gallen then did some light running at training before the decision was made to scratch him from the side on the advice of doctor Nathan Gibbs. Gallen had wanted until tomorrow to prove his fitness, but Gibbs, who famously ruled Wally Lewis out of the 1990 Kangaroo Tour, and coach Daley chose to lower the boom when it became clear he would be no better by tomorrow morning. Daley then called the players into a circle and shared the news with the team. There were empathetic hugs for Gallen and high-fives for prop Aaron Woods, who was called in as Gallen's replacement. His exit didn't just cost him his spot. Last night, Daley chose to promote Boyd Cordner to the interchange bench at the expense of Josh Reynolds. Reynolds, who played 14 minutes in the opening two games, will play for Canterbury against Melbourne tomorrow while Cordner will make his debut in Origin III. "He (Gallen) wanted to be given until Sunday but when we spoke about it and went through it with the doctor, there was no way he was going to improve enough between now and game day," Daley said. For anyone who knows him, they know what pulling on the blue jersey means. For him not to have that opportunity in a series decider has cut him deeply. He is quite distressed I suppose that he can't be there. It's a big game for him, a big game for our state. He is our leader. We wanted him there but we had to make a call in the best interests of the team and unfortunately he is not going to be right. He was (emotional). He is a big tough guy but this means so much to him. He has probably dreamt about it for 12 months. Daley said it was up to his teammates to make up for the loss of their talismanic skipper. "We have to share Gal's workload," Daley said. On one hand we're disappointed for him but on the other hand we have to be really positive about where we're going. He also endorsed Farah's ascension to the captaincy. I congratulated him and you're expecting a massive smile but it's pretty tough because you know your mate (Gallen) is doing it tough.