Is Laurie Daley doomed to repeat the mistakes of the Blues past?

THE Blues have tried to defend their way to victory for years and recent comments from Laurie Daley indicates they’re trying to do it again writes PAUL KENT.

NSW coach Laurie Daley and his players show thier dejection after losing the State of Origin match between Queensland and New South Wales. Pic Darren England.

FOR roughly a decade everybody has had an opinion on who should be picked for the Blues and why, not always with full disclosure.

Queensland still believe they can get a player picked every year for NSW simply by talking him up in the press and crossing their fingers hard.

Of greater concern is they might be right.

The latest selection squabble, as we like to call them, started this week when Andrew Johns drew on his considerable formline and named his NSW to take on Queensland. There, in bold print, were Canberra halves Aidan Sezer and Blake Austin.

Both would be debutantes.

Johns believes that NSW needs to find ways to score points to beat Queensland and the strategy of defending their way to victory at home, in vogue for some years now, is no longer enough.

A quick glance at recent results suggest he might be right.

Only one game was played in Sydney last year and Queensland won that 11-10, although the Blues played grimly and had a shot at the death.

The Blues wrapped up the series the season before in a 6-4 decider in Sydney.

The year before two games were played in Sydney, the results split between NSW’s 14-6 win in the opener and Queensland’s 12-10 win in the decider.

All low scoring games. Not all NSW’s way either.

The reason why, though, reveals itself when you consider the last time NSW scored more than 20 points and won the game was a 28-16 result at Lang Park in 2009.

Should the Blues take a punt on Blake Austin.

There is a quiet fear around the rugby league hallways that Daley is planning to grind his way to victory again, even though it appears the subtle changes in rules introduced this season make it increasingly difficult to win such a way.

That’s why Johns went for points in his NSW team.

Soon after Johns’s team came out Daley appeared on NRL360, a role where he jousts weekly with Queensland coach Kevin Walters.

By then, and unbeknown to the panel, Daley had already spoken to Dean Ritchie and let him know that firmly in the frame as the Blues halves are Trent Hodkinson and possibly his former halves partner, Josh Reynolds.

He gently redirected the conversation about Sezer and Austin. His preference was for those that had been there before.

“You’ve got to realise these two guys have never played in a big game,” he said.

“They’re 25 years of age. They haven’t taken their teams to semi-final football before so we can’t judge them on the big stage.

“But what we can judge them on is what they’re doing at the moment and that’s a critical component of the make up of your Origin team.”

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Then he said, “To throw young guys into the critical positions in a State of Origin game, you have got no idea what you’re getting involved in.”

This caused mild alarm in the seat next to him, which happened to be occupied by me.

“You know what I really think about this?” he asked after a gentle poke.

“I think more people are worried about this than what I am.

“I know where we’re going, I know the track we’re on. At the end of the day I will be judged after my term is up with the NSW Rugby League, but we’re on a path and I know where we’re going and I know how to get there.”

Maybe, but NSW fans might have a right for cautious concern.

As much as they try to forget, nobody can erase the 52-6 scoreline that decided last year’s series.

Yes, such a performance came with the series on the line.

Worse, afterwards Daley said there was nothing their preparation to indicate a performance like that was coming.

Assistant coach Matt Parish said the preparation was “flawless”.

If Daley couldn’t see it coming, if Parish believed nothing more could be done to improve the Blues’ preparation, how can they be sure it won’t happen again?

DRAGONS MUST HOLD THE BALL

THE first words out of Vince Lombardi’s mouth, every season when he gathered his team together, were always the same: “Gentlemen, this is a football.”

Kind of basic, but that was the point.

Lombardi was a fulltime philosopher in between part-time coaching but his premise was simple: guys, assume nothing.

He would stress the importance of the football. Without it, you are no doubt starting to catch on, you could not win a game.

If St George Illawarra’s loss to Brisbane on Thursday showed one thing it is that the Dragons have some players out of form, some distracted and a few others still learning the ways.

Most of all, it showed until they start hanging on to the ball it doesn’t matter how tough they defend, they won’t win.

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From the first six rounds the Dragons played Melbourne (away), Cronulla (away), Souths at the SCG (neutral), Penrith (home), North Queensland (away) and Brisbane (away).

That is a tough run for any club. Four, really five away games and that included last year’s two grand finalists, the ever threatening Storm, Souths and emerging premiership heavyweight, Cronulla.

The Dragons were held scoreless for the second week in a row.

Three wins from that group would have been terrific. Two wins, as they have, is a strong pass.

It is balanced by a favourable second half, but that seems a long way at the moment.

More, they should have beaten Melbourne and probably would have with fairer decisions made. It’s when you look at their ball retention that the story of the Dragons comes out.

They completed at 74 per cent against the Storm.

They got walloped by the Sharks. Completions at 53 per cent.

They beat Souths. Completions 89 per cent.

Beat Penrith. Completions 82 per cent.

Got annihilated by the Cowboys. Completions 59 per cent.

Then they went down Thursday to Brisbane. Completions were 69 per cent.

Given most clubs now believe you need to be completing at least 75 per cent to give yourself a winning chance, the line is clear cut.

The solution for the Dragons might be easier than most believe.

It is called a football. Hang on to it.

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JUST ANSWER THE QUESTIONS

Luke Graham is film producer of “Broke”, son of a gun

You’ve just released a movie, that has a rugby league touch, dealing with problem gambling?

[Laughs] Because my dad was a famous rugby league player and if they didn’t it probably would have been bad. Or do you want something you can actually write?

The NRL partially funded the movie, through their welfare department.

They can give grants. We got it through Frank Puletua, Paul Heptonstall and Nigel Vagana. It really just came down to them, those three gentleman from the NRL made it happen

We all know that gambling money does put a lot of financial gain into rugby league so they didn’t want to ruffle too many feathers, but they read the script and they saw it as something to help people.

The main character is an ex-North Sydney Bears players. He has a striking resemblance to your dad, Mark Graham.

You’ll see footage of dad playing in the early 80s and that’s supposed to be a young Slem (Steve Le Marquand). Slem looks a lot like dad in the early 80s, a bit lanky and slim, tall fellow though, but obviously hasn’t got onto the weighs yet.

That explains why it did look like a real player, not an actor playing a rugby league player.

I’m not going to criticise anyone. Rugby league is a hard game to get right. And our budget was tiny.

Was that tough to do?

The only funding we got was from the NRL. When I went looking for film I contacted the NRL and they said that footage was with a former media partner where the deal went sour so all the games were thrown away. I had to get the games of dad from a facebook group.

Grant Hackett showed great humility.

A GOOD WEEK FOR

GRANT Hackett’s humility and sincerity was there again after his fourth place 400m at the Australian trials in Adelaide when he praised the winner, Mack Horton, instantly knowing the young Aussie hope had just swum the third fastest 400m in history.

Let’s be a little careful getting carried away with that though, we all remember how times failed to carry on four years ago in London.

A ROUGH WEEK FOR

THE greatness of the US Masters and the Augusta National course is it can reduce any legend, on a seemingly harmless day, to appearing nothing more than a club player. Hello Ernie Els, a four-time major winner. Els seven-putted the first hole at the Masters on Thursday, effectively ruling him out of contention with 71 holes still to play.

The Swans will take on the Giants this weekend.

DON’T MISS

THE Sydney Swans are already channelling their inner Des Hasler, even just two rounds into the premiership. The Swans are undefeated but already being spoken about as “under the radar”. It gets slightly tougher to carry on today when they take on cross-town rivals the Giants at the SCG (Channel 7 4.30pm).

CHILL PILLS

CHRIS Waller keeps getting cooler with every big racing carnival. Even without Winx in Saturday’s Queen Elizabeth, he remains the story.

ANGRY PILLS

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Originally published as Is Laurie Daley doomed to repeat the mistakes of the Blues past?