NSW could ride Brad Fittler’s luck all the way to another Origin triumph
When Brad Fittler took over as NSW coach, Queensland’s future Immortals all quit. When he gets his team selections wrong, injuries make them right. NSWRL should sign him up for life, writes PAUL KENT.
Opinion
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It is a mathematical truth, it might have been Galileo who discovered it first, that good luck will always beat good management.
Horse players have gone broke for years before discovering this elusive truth, hidden deep in Galileo’s Two New Sciences, bottom of the page.
It is in this spirit the NSW Rugby League should contract Brad Fittler for the rest of his natural life.
When it comes to luck and serendipity Fittler, the NSW coach, is the heavyweight champion of the world.
Fittler took on what most believed was the impossible job last year.
Queensland had won 11 of the previous 12 Origin series to put together an era of dominance unseen since Johnny Raper and Changa Langlands put the fire in the Dragons, with several notable others.
But nobody was counting on the tremendous luck Fittler possesses, which might have been the Blues’ plan all along.
The Maroons’ dominance was built around the greatest spine assembled in the history of the game.
The original line-up was Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Darren Lockyer and Johnathan Thurston. All have been spoken about as future Immortals.
Lockyer would retire and into the band would come Cooper Cronk, a half shandy off, and the dominance continued.
Fittler appeared mad to want to take on such a job. Surely but he stepped into the job and immediately sprinkled his lucky dust.
Soon after Fittler was confirmed as coach Cooper Cronk announced he was retiring from rep football. Johnathan Thurston had only recently retired from the game altogether.
Two down, but they still had Smith.
Then weeks before the series began Fittler flew to Melbourne for a coffee with Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy, where he hoped to pick Bellamy’s mind.
Who knew Fittler’s tremendous good luck was going to step up a notch.
Before the skinny flat white the Blues learned Smith was quitting Origin.
Beautiful.
Fittler picked an unlikely team and Queensland, what else, lost Slater for game one.
Of course he won the game and rode the good luck out to take the series.
So why should it change this year?
Despite being heavy favourites he blew it in game one when he picked a team that appeared to have no clear purpose. It looked like a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
Around the NRL, few could believe Fittler was considering the out-of-form Penrith halves, Nathan Cleary and James Maloney, to open the series.
Still, if he was going to plonk for one then Maloney, it was believed, was the proven big-game player.
He went for Cleary.
Then he hammed up the interchange during the game. The Maroons exploited it and found a way to win despite not matching the Blues for talent.
But this is Freddy, remember, Mr Lucky. The loss gave him the chance to get the team right.
So luck and serendipity, in the form of injury and circumstance, came to his rescue second time around.
Into the second team came the likes of Wade Graham and Tom Trbojevic, back from injury, while Fittler looked to replace Cody Walker at five-eighth.
He pencilled in Mitchell Pearce as Cleary’s replacement with a complicated game plan to have Pearce wear the No.6 jersey but take control of the team as, essentially, a running halfback.
In other words, Pearce was being framed with the responsibility without the reward.
What another stroke of luck, though, that Pearce was injured and Maloney was chosen.
He was the spark that ignited the Blues, all the way to victory.
As the Blues again assume favouritism, Fittler called David Klemmer Sunday night and told him the Blues would not require his services.
Fittler prefers Tariq Sims instead.
Klemmer played 13 Origins straight before missing game two because of a fractured wrist he suffered in game one.
In that first game Klemmer ran for 147m, more than any forward on the field, including the victorious Queensland team. In a game where the Blues struggled for go-forward, Klemmer was the one forward going forward.
Right now he is the best prop in the world.
Yet Fittler might be about to have another stroke of Freddy Luck. Sims was charged with a grade two dangerous contact and faces the judiciary on Tuesday night.
Most believe Sims’ tackle was at the lighter end and Sims should have been charged with a grade one, which with the discount for an early plea would have reduced his points and allowed him to play for the Blues.
But last week the NRL announced it was cancelling all precedents, which puts Sims in danger of missing the game.
If so, Klemmer plays.
Freddy Luck.
Originally published as NSW could ride Brad Fittler’s luck all the way to another Origin triumph
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