NSW Blues duo Josh Dugan, Blake Ferguson fail to see big picture by drinking on day off

BLAKE Ferguson and Josh Dugan had an afternoon on the drink. No big deal. But viewed under a different light, it changes. They need to see the big picture, writes PAUL KENT.

Dugan and Ferguson’s day out illustrated a failing in Blues camp. (Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

BEFORE Game II in the 2003 series the Queensland Maroons took their very famous culture to a Chinese restaurant for a team dinner.

They were down 1-0 in the series, not a good place to be at any time, but soon their cares were carried away as one drink turned into many until finally, mercifully, somebody called time.

For reasons unknown, one of those players, five-eighth Ben Ikin, picked up a bottle of rum and headed to his room with a teammate.

For those who know Ikin through his current persona, as the serious and intelligent one on NRL360, it always comes as a surprise to be told he actually played the game, let alone to be told he was generally the one organising the end-of-season trips, or the big night on the bye weekend, or that the barbecues for the single guys were generally held at his place.

Somewhere along the way, all that personality just up and left and he turned into a serious rugby league commentator.

REPORT: NSW hid drunk players

Wayne Bennett quickly pointed out to Ben Ikin where he went awry. Photo: David Kapernick

Anyway, the next morning after his rum binge Ikin was still three-parts drunk on the bus to training. He was unworried because he was always naturally fit and a good trainer, so spirits remained high.

So he began cracking jokes, calling coach Wayne Bennett “the old man” and generally turning Bennett into a punchline before putting the crosshairs on anybody else whose head popped into sight.

Later, when it all cooled down, Bennett called Ikin into his room and got savage.

“So you think you’re a comedian?” he said.

Ikin felt his body sinking.

Bennett spoke firmly and every sentence was a fresh lashing.

Finally he told Ikin, the comedian, to go away and write down his best stuff.

“We’re going to Sydney and when we get there you’re going to stand up and do 15 minutes of your best stuff for the team.”

Dugan and Ferguson’s day out illustrated a failing in Blues camp. (Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

We speak about this on Tuesday and he is unsure whether he wants to talk about it on the show later in the evening.

He does not call it the most embarrassing moment of his life but he admits it is not far away and it is still one of those moments he would like the chance to do again.

He is trying to find a sympathetic position for Josh Dugan and Blake Ferguson, the two NSW players who did nothing wrong but everything wrong when they took their Friday afternoon off before the Origin III decider last week and thought they would head for the pub.

He just didn’t get it back then, he says. He was lost in that bubble of professional football that gets only worse with Origin and he lost sight of the bigger picture, the real picture, and he wonders if Dugan and Ferguson are there now.

If they are, they will still have trouble understanding the fuller picture.

This whole debate is about expectation and privilege.

Ferguson and Dugan had an afternoon on the drink. No big deal on its own. Viewed under a different light, it changes.

Much of the media knew about the pair’s afternoon out and chose not to write about it.

It became a story only after the game, which NSW lost, and only after the manner in which they lost and only after coach Laurie Daley’s decision to reinstate Andrew Fifita.

By then, the afternoon out spoke not of action but of culture.

There is a right to expect, when players are chosen to represent NSW and paid $30,000 for that privilege, they will do everything in their power to win that game.

More than just their own happiness is at stake.

For years NSW fans have listened with enough sympathy to the case of Queensland’s dominance, most notably the existence of Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Johnathan Thurston and Greg Inglis, all the way back to Darren Lockyer.

They are among the greatest to play their position. Blues fans understood.

Within this battle against this greatest of challenges, though, is the idea that if the Blues are to give themselves any chance of beating superior opponents, they have to get their preparation perfect.

That brings sacrifice and discipline. That is a reasonable expectation from those outside the team.

The Queenslanders played golf on their same day off or, if their families were in town, spent the day with them.

Nobody knows exactly what were NSW’s standards in camp.

Dugan and Ferguson broke no rules because there were no rules. Rules are no longer made because then they can’t be broken.

The assumption players will do all they can to win is expected but now we find out it is not there.

NSW must look carefully at their preparation next year. Picture: Brett Costello

Nobody believes it would happen in Queensland. Way back when Bennett was rousting Ikin he recognised the disrespect inherent in what he was saying and cut it off quickly.

The Maroons have not looked back since and are led by fine men.

Earlier this year Melbourne’s Jesse Bromwich and Gold Coast Kevin Proctor got busted snorting coke when in Canberra for the Australia-New Zealand Test.

Bromwich, the Kiwi captain, later flew home to Melbourne and Smith, the Australian captain, was in a different row on the same flight.

The whole way home Bromwich worried how he was going to tell Smith. He got the nerve walking through Melbourne’s airport, catching up from behind.

“Is it true?” were the first words Smith said.

Bromwich knew it was going to be as bad as he expected.

Originally published as NSW Blues duo Josh Dugan, Blake Ferguson fail to see big picture by drinking on day off