State of Origin 2021: How Maroons plan to shut down Blues superman
How do the Maroons plan to shut down Blues superman? Can Christian Welch prove he is the kryptonite of the NRL’s best player?
NRL
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Interviewing Tom Trbojevic these days comes with a warning.
“He has become a cliche,” NSW coach Brad Fittler says with a laugh.
“I think that is what happens – he is learning well, why not be humble? The more humble he is, he tries to push all the [adulation] on everyone else.
“It is quite embarrassing interviewing him. It is a cliche-a-thon. It is just dull. He has become very boring. But he has everyone talking.”
Boring? Surely not. This, after all, is rugby league’s man of the moment. A player who is in one of the most purple of patches modern rugby league has seen.
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Nathan Cleary has been the player of the season, but Trbojevic has been the player of the last month or so. His form has been a sight to behold.
He has returned from hamstring problems and transformed Manly, prompting Queensland coach Paul Green to concede on Friday that the Maroons will need to be on their toes to stop Trbojevic.
He looks invincible.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Trbojevic said.
“Back to Manly, we have a very clear plan going into the game. When you have those players around you and a very clear plan….”
Surely there is more to it? There must be something more?
“This is probably the best I have been physically for a while,” Trbojevic said.
“For me it is all about ticking boxes. When you come into a game clear and knowing what to do, you slot into a role.
“It’s not like you go out there feeling invincible. You go out there knowing your role.”
Fittler wasn’t kidding.
“The game is quicker – I think it suits me,” Trbojevic said.
“I feel like I can understand the game and see a lot of things. I am not giving you much. I just feel clear going out and playing footy.
“You have come to the wrong place if you are looking for something. I have nothing. I am no fun. I am just a footy player – I just play footy.
“I am not on social media, I don’t read anything. I have a new look on the world.”
Trbojevic has uncluttered his mind and dispensed with the outside distractions. At the same time, he has responded to ongoing hamstring problems by working on his running technique with Manly’s athletic development and rehabilitation coach Rubin Ruzicka, who returned to the club late last year.
As part of his rehabilitation, earlier in the year he flew to Melbourne with teammate Kieran Foran and visited experts at the Australian Catholic University.
“I guess it is not a surprise when I saw what I saw in pre-season,” Foran said.
“I always knew he was world class watching him from afar, But then when I came back to Manly this year and did a pre-season with him, it blew me away.
“I was going home most afternoons and going ‘wow’. It is everything with Tommy. I think the thing that blows me away is that his footy smarts are incredible, really high.
“Then I think in this game there would be blokes who have that high level of footy smarts but they lack the athleticism to go with it.
“The thing that separates Tommy is he is such an athlete along with such a high footy IQ. Along with (Daly) Cherry-Evans, he has the lowest skin folds in the club, he doesn’t have an inch of fat on him.
“At 106 kilos, he is lightning fast, he is brave.”
On and on it goes. Lashings of praise.
“That was one of the first things I got to realise when I got there with him – he doesn’t overthink things and he doesn’t get in his own head,” Foran said.
“There are so many things he has done over the past 10 weeks that I have just marvelled at. In the moment, gone ‘wow’. He is a special footballer.
“If he can stay injury-free and taking everything in his stride and doing everything he is doing, the sky is the limit.”
Trbojevic enters Origin with his confidence soaring. So good was his form, some dared to suggest he should have been the NSW fullback rather than incumbent and captain James Tedesco.
That was never going to happen. Tedesco has the runs on the board and he remains one of the best players in the game.
Fittler has given himself the best of both worlds. Trbojevic and Tedesco have the potential to give Queensland conniptions given with ability to break tackles and sniff out an opportunity.
They both have a rare blend of size, speed and power. Between them, they have the ability to wreak havoc.
“I just ask them to do what you can to make us win,” Fittler said.
“I back their judgment.”
HOW MAROONS PLAN TO SHUT DOWN BLUES SUPERMAN
The Maroons have devised a blueprint to shut down Blues superman Nathan Cleary, with Queensland prop Christian Welch on a mission to prove he is the kryptonite of the NRL’s best player.
Queensland has identified Cleary as the man to stop in Wednesday night’s State of Origin series-opener in Townsville and will do everything to stifle his impact on the game.
Cleary kicked the Blues to a 24-point win in Game Two last year in what was one of the great performances by an Origin halfback.
But his failure to dominate the decider, which Queensland won, and the NRL grand final against Melbourne, which Penrith lost, proved how pivotal Cleary is to his team’s success.
Welch, who missed Game Two last year following a head knock, has made it his mission to pressure Cleary at Queensland Country Bank Stadium and the Maroons have vowed to terrorise NSW’s gun No.7 and debutant five-eighth Jarome Luai.
“There are crucial things like kick-pressure,” Welch said.
“If you don’t put kick-pressure on Nathan Cleary he will put you five metres from the sideline and your own try-line. Then they’ll get the baseball bats out and bash you.
“Little effort plays like that are really important at the Storm and what I see a lot of value in.
“You look at the way Penrith play. They are a high-completion style team and play the field position game.
“Cleary bombs corners and they wait to make their move when their opponent falls over or makes an error.
“It’s important to win that battle. Any player in the position to pressure halves has to do it.”
Queensland’s forwards will have to match their rivals in the midfield if the Maroons are going to have time to limit Cleary’s influence.
If the Blues big men get on a roll, combined with the NRL’s new six-again rules, Cleary will have too much space to work his magic.
Queensland’s forwards have been instructed to pressure Cleary with every opportunity and back-row hit-man Jaydn Su’A said that was what he would be doing.
“He is one of the best players in the world — of course you have to get stuck into him,” he said. “We will try and rattle him. I am sure we will send some traffic his way.
“Our forwards did a great job last year. ‘Welchie’ was incredible. He is in fine form at the moment but we will be ready.’’
Cleary had a four-point lead in the Dally M Medal race when voting went behind closed doors after Round 12, such has been his dominance for Penrith this season.
Maroons prop Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, a former Storm player, said Melbourne’s tactics in last year’s grand final proved Cleary can be stopped.
“Pressure is the key,” he said.
“Any good playmaker, you have to apply pressure on them and try to put them off their game.
“It worked for us in the grand final last year, but Nathan is a great player, no doubt about that. We have to watch him.
“I’m confident we can match them in the midfield. The NSW side is a strong side but I’ll back us to stand up to them. We have a pack to win this game.”
The selection of Luai at five-eighth and Penrith lock Isaah Yeo will help take the pressure off Cleary given the Blues will look to imitate the Panthers’ attacking style.
But the No.7 remains the key to NSW’s chances of securing a crucial Game One win before the series moves to Suncorp Stadium on June 27.
Queensland captain Daly Cherry-Evans is locked in a battle with Cleary for the Kangaroos No.7 jersey and said the Blues young gun would be tough to stop.
“He is playing lights-out footy at the moment, he really is,” he said.
“Nathan has always been a good player but over the last 18 months his form has been unreal.
“But it’s Origin now. He is not at the Panthers. He is with the Blues and the form in this arena is different.
“I’ll be interested to see how their game plan changes with the personnel they’ve got in the side and the form of the Panthers. Cleary has led that charge.
“He is an important part of their side like any halfback. The thing with the Blues side is Cleary will be important to shut down, but there’s 16 other players with strike.”
- Additional reporting Robert Craddock
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