NRL 2021: Why NSW Blues escape scrutiny for State of Origin loss, Paul Kent
NSW fans are furious over the Blues failing to complete the clean sweep, but they’ve managed to avoid scrutiny. Where is the accountability, asks PAUL KENT.
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After praising Queensland’s performance Wednesday night and defending their own, united in protection, the truth is no closer to coming out about why NSW lost.
NSW coach Brad Fittler pointed out in the Sydney Morning Herald on Friday the three mistakes he believed referee Gerard Sutton made that, he says, contributed to NSW’s loss.
“They were all 50-50 decisions on Wednesday night but we didn’t get any of them,” Fittler said.
“Gerard Sutton has done a great job, he’s now refereed the most State of Origins, but when you do that the role gets reviewed as much as the players’ and coaches’ role – you’re held to higher standards.”
Well, in theory, anyway.
The Blues coaching box continue to hide from their own mistakes, avoiding any higher standard, and react to justified interrogation by baring their teeth.
Where is their accountability?
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Origin is not another football game because it has never been treated as another football game, both in popularity and financial terms, and so with it comes extra scrutiny.
As Fittler acknowledged.
But if Fittler believes it is fair to raise Sutton’s mistakes – all three of which were quickly rejected by referees boss Jared Maxwell and declared the right decision – why do the Blues coaches escape similar scrutiny for losing the unlosable game?
Every NSW fan, every brickie stopping for smoko on a job site, every plumber sending his electric eel down another drain or banker getting home after dinner, his time loosened, wants the same answer: how did the Blues lose the game they were all told was unlosable?
This was more deflating than even a normal Origin loss. Is that the question and the answer?
Yet because they have never played an Origin game the fans are treated like livestock, fed and fattened without right to question.
One of the best NSW teams ever went down to a Queensland team that has no such claims, yet the best it could be explained by some is that it was, apparently, the “magic of Origin”.
After an accumulated scoreline of 76-6 after two games, the most ever, even after two games, many rightly wondered whether this was one of the best NSW teams ever, if not the best.
Not so quickly, warned coach Fittler, who did nothing to dampen the thoughts.
“Until they do that,” he said before the game, speaking of a series whitewash, “you just win another series, that’s about it.”
To underline the dominance of those first two wins, Fittler said, the Blues needed to win all three games.
His adviser, Greg Alexander, also acknowledged its importance, the day of the game.
“Not much, but we certainly touched on it last night …” he said.
Then they lost.
And so far the best reasons given for why are that referee Sutton made three mistakes or, another throw-off, that it was because “Queensland turned up tonight”.
If the Blues were as good as their pre-publicity, should that have mattered? Sutton might have made three mistakes, but did the Blues coaches make three themselves, from team selections to interchanges, to overconfidence.
Fittler had three significant team changes for Game III.
Prop Daniel Saifiti, a play-one ball carrier, was injured. So he was replaced with Melbourne lock Dale Finucane.
While both effectively play in the middle, Finucane is not regarded as a play-one runner. Meanwhile, Payne Haas remained on the bench.
Halves Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai were injured so in came Mitch Moses for his Origin debut and Jack Wighton was promoted off the bench. Unlike Cleary and Luai, the Blues halves rarely combined in the game.
But hold on, just a few weeks back Alexander the Adviser, in his role as a Fox Sports analyst, criticised the Raiders in their loss to Gold Coast for playing Wighton as a first receiver.
He is not a first receiver, he said.
So why did the Blues pick him to play on the left edge as a half? Where his greatest danger was at second receiver, running the ball?
With Wighton promoted from bench utility to five-eighth, Penrith hooker and 18th man in the first two games, Api Koroisau, was rewarded with a bench spot.
Koroisau played strongly, even though his selection was unusual.
But before the game Alexander the Adviser made an unusual case for Koroisau’s selection.
“Cookie (Damien Cook) has been the man to play 80 minutes from 2018 onwards …” he said, which indicated no concerns about Cook playing 80 minutes on Wednesday.
“We thought Api being the 18th man and being close to the team, great performer, and was the best player for the Panthers against the Eels last week – he had a great game – so he deserved his chance.”
So the Blues, with injury presenting opportunity, put Koroisau on the bench as a second hooker instead of selecting, say, another middle forward.
Was this selection complacency? A reward that could be endured because the Blues had won the first two games so convincingly?
Some will take offence on Koroisau’s behalf at such a suggestion but it is not a criticism of his talent, but of the choice in team make-up. Particularly when the Blues began to fatigue through the middle.
The Blues doubled down their error in the 53rd minute when, in an apparent attempt to finally give Koroisau some minutes, sent him on for Cook.
But not only did Cook get replaced, Cameron Murray did at the same time.
This is a mistake Wayne Bennett would never make at South Sydney, where Cook and Murray both play.
NSW led 12-8 at the time but, in that one moment, lost their speed around the ruck and, very quickly with it, any momentum they had.
Queensland scored three minutes later to lead 14-8 and were never again headed.
Yet none of these mistakes have been raised by the Blues in the aftermath of losing the game, just referee Suttons.
There are more questions, not as many answers …
HOW WILL PLAYERS COPE IN THE QLD BUBBLE?
The intensity of some coaches is well known, and their ability to find a video clip hidden in their pocket is well established.
As the 13 visiting teams settle into their Queensland hub in the countdown to the playoffs, the question among fans is what players will handle it the best?
The better question might be less about what players better handle the hub experience than the coaches.
For the first time, in some instances, coaches will have what is shaping like, for the rest of the season, a completely captive audience.
A playing group where the furthest player is never more than a few rooms away at all hours of the day.
Players will adapt to life in the bubble better than most.
The difficulty of the coaches will be trying to contain their own intensity and stopping themselves from projecting it onto their players 24/7 in their hotel bubble.
Some clubs have already established strict ground rules around coaching staff and coaching and the players’ spare time.
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Originally published as NRL 2021: Why NSW Blues escape scrutiny for State of Origin loss, Paul Kent
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