The NSW Blues point the finger of blame at everyone but themselves
THE fact that the Blues hierarchy and the players involved don’t believe they did anything wrong by going to the pub says it all, writes Paul Kent.
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WHEN Laurie Daley took the big job one of his first actions was to embed himself in the All Blacks camp for a short time where he came away with many small pearls of wisdom, one of which was the blue head and the red head.
The blue head and the red are states of being. The blue head acts rationally under pressure, the red head emotionally.
When Daley saw his players slipping in to a red head state his instructions were for his trainers to squirt a water bottle in their face to remind them to get it together and focus again on what was important.
The squirting bottle was the preferred method of All Black Brad Thorn. Richie McCaw stamped his feet.
More than a few need that squirt in the face now.
Since the Blues lost Origin III the conversation has been hijacked by emotion and irrelevance. The ones who know are having their counsel polluted by sides issues or misinformation, often told with good intent, but irrelevant all the same.
So let’s put behaviour to the side.
Let’s agree Josh Dugan and Blake Ferguson did nothing wrong from a behavioural point of view when they took themselves down to the pub on the Friday before Origin III. They went and had a few beers, stayed for the Joker draw and left immediately after.
Daley is being well supported by the NSW Rugby League.
A board meeting reinforced as much, in what was a busy week for the league.
A midweek review rushed to a conclusion was a publicity stunt.
It was paying $1.02 that Dugan and Ferguson would be cleared of wrongdoing, preferring to focus on the right or wrong aspect of it — they did nothing illegal or offensive — while overlooking the link to performance.
It cleared Andrew Fifita of a supposed blow-up with Daley, denying Fifita was ever told he would start from the bench for David Klemmer. It failed to address Klemmer’s confirmation that he was told he would start the game, which adviser Peter Sterling later confirmed.
Cut through the indignant protest and, based on NSWRL’s own version, the Blues had two players believing they were starting the game and they appear okay with that.
In every honest culture, transparency is key.
It failed to address the way the camp was run, an environment that has confused several NRL coaches.
The Blues have no rules regarding drinking.
This is a private nod to the Valley Six. That’s Queensland’s nickname for the six players who left last year’s emerging squad camp for a night out at Fortitude Valley even though coach Kevin Walters had expressly forbidden them from leaving camp.
When Walters learned of it he announced the players would be stood down from Origin consideration. But that was when he thought there was just two and when it later emerged there were six he swallowed a big lump and hoped.
So the Blues have a Valley Six rule that privately acknowledges that if they don’t have any rules then nobody can break any rules and so no discipline is necessary.
Yet Roosters coach Trent Robinson identified the problem inside that when talking about Ferguson, his Roosters winger, on Thursday: “We have got to give them guidance. If you tell them what to do then you take away choice.’’
Robinson came as close to saying what nobody wants to say, which is if you give the players a choice you run the real risk they will make the wrong choice.
But the Blues did not want a Valley Six situation and so found the side entrance to avoid it.
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy, responsible for the Storm culture that now flows through Queensland, was also confused, even as he acknowledged the Valley Six clause.
“To me it just comes back to a bit of common sense,” Bellamy said. “You can put some rules in place but the more rules you put in, the more likely something is going to get broken — I can’t see why you need a rule that you can’t go to the pub five days before Origin, to me that is just a bit of common sense.”
When common sense isn’t so common, though, rules help tremendously.
In itself, Ferguson and Dugan’s decision to drink beer means nothing. But it speaks of something bigger.
Something the Blues already know.
The club coaches are speaking to what Daley and the NSWRL need to acknowledge.
“If you just change one or two things it is not going to happen,’’ Robinson said.
“If you stay simplistic in what you need to change you won’t beat them.
“There are so many different things that go into it and we’re looking at individuals, there is more than just that.’’
More than anything this conversation needs clarity.
Two years after sending Daley to the All Blacks the NSWRL sent Daley and assistant coach Matt Parish and manager Barrie-Jon Mather to America to study techniques at NFL teams, college football and other major leagues.
I asked Daley what he hoped to learn in these trips.
It was a legitimate question given the Blues in the Origin environment already considers itself a highly professional organisation, with millions in their budget.
“The one percenters,” he said.
It was that simple.
And it is the key to this whole conversation.
Why, undermanned and playing the greatest Queensland era in history, are the Blues not getting those one per cent efforts right to give themselves the best chance to win?
Did the afternoon at the pub, waiting for the Joker draw, enhance their chances?
The red head and the blue head have different answers.
Originally published as The NSW Blues point the finger of blame at everyone but themselves
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