State of Origin 2018: NSW Blues working plays to ensure halfback Nathan Cleary gets into the game
NATHAN Cleary has been victorious if not imperious for the Blues in NSW’s Origin triumph. But coach Brad Fittler has a plan to bring the best out of his No.7, writes PAUL KENT.
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A LITTLE subterfuge took place at the NSW camp this week. The full effect will be on display on Wednesday.
It was wonderful the way they did it.
The Blues were running their left edge against their right edge, up and down the track at Coogee Oval, and all the talk was about up-tempo football and transition footy and all that, and everybody watched on without even realising it was happening.
Almost the whole drill was for Nathan Cleary.
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Cleary was quiet in his second game for the Blues, and only marginally louder in the first.
His greatest compliments were that he did not overplay his hand. No grubber kicks dead for a seven-tackle set, no kicks out on the full, no overplaying his hand with the ball.
It was all neat and tidy, as is his way. Aside from a necessary covering tackle in the second game, it is hard to recall other standout moments.
It was a quiet concern for the Blues.
It was decided long ago, at least in public conversation, that Cleary is the future of the team.
Yet only the Blues two victories have saved him from more heated criticism.
Coach Brad Fittler soon realised something needed to be fixed, even if Cleary has so far handled it all before him.
He skipped through the grades, from age-group footy to NSW Cup and into the NRL and finally into rep football and, at each level, Cleary has performed like a veteran.
Not so much with Origin, though, but not so much that he hasn’t handled it, either.
Physically and emotionally Cleary has been right there.
So why not his game?
The answer is in the NSW victories. In Fittler himself and the coaching crew around him, Danny Buderus and Greg Alexander and Andrew Johns.
Origin is instinct football.
Wally Lewis dominated Origin because he was the greatest instinctive footballer in the world.
Similarly, Fittler came in and dominated because his instincts were sharper than his opponents.
As the Blues faltered in recent years Johns and Buderus both questioned NSW’s strategy of playing structure-first footy when, they knew, Origin was all about playing fast and over the advantage line.
Instinct.
It’s what they stressed this year and why five-eighth James Maloney has had his best series.
Maloney embraces the eyes up philosophy.
Cleary struggled with it.
He is used to knowing where the players would be around him and at every level he knew where the team needed to be and how to get them there.
Shape, structure, call it what you will, but if it’s there one moment and gone the next then there’s every chance you’ll flounder a little, especially on the game’s biggest stage.
This playing fast and over the advantage line, it was a little new to him.
Fittler addressed that in this camp.
There is no suggestion the Blues will go away from what has worked the past two games but Fittler has built in fallbacks for his No.7.
Towards the end of Friday’s session Fittler handed the team over to Johns standing behind the Blues and watching them run through their sets.
Occasionally he pulled them up and spoke in his neat footy shorthand, Cleary nodding with understanding.
In subtle ways Fittler has put structure around Cleary to give him somewhere to go.
Cleary is one of two halfbacks with a lot on the line on Wednesday night.
The other seven, Daly Cherry-Evans, might have more at stake than Cleary.
Cherry-Evans is The Maroon Who Came In From The Cold.
He was on the outer at Queensland after falling foul of the senior playing group some years back but, this year, with the retirement of the several seniors and two losses in this series, Maroons coach Kevin Walters called him back into the team.
The pressure is on more than usual.
Even before this game Queensland selector Darren Lockyer threw his position in doubt, saying that Cherry-Evans will be considered for next year’s series but so will Michael Morgan and Ash Taylor.
No pick and stick here, just perform or perish.
Both players are capable of delivering what their respective coaches have asked from them.
But this is State of Origin, and trying new things or finding a different groove can be a player’s great undoing.
Originally published as State of Origin 2018: NSW Blues working plays to ensure halfback Nathan Cleary gets into the game
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