The decision not to select Andrew Fifita shows how far New South Wales have come

ANDREW Fifita has been the best prop in the game in 2018. New South Wales decided not to pick him. The reasons as to why is proof the Blues have entered a new era writes PAUL KENT.

Injury forces Gagai out Andrew Fifita.

A LOT was being said about Andrew Fifita in a lot of different conversations around the game and a lot of it was good.

Chad Townsend was on Fox Sports just a few weeks supporting his clubmate with logic that was hard to beat.

If Fifita was the best prop in the game, Townsend urged, and he was also available for Games I and III, why shouldn’t he be picked?

Oh, some others jumped on that idea. They sounded wonderfully intelligent.

All you had to do for evidence was look at him play.

Fifita was on something of a tear. In four games he scored 11 Dally M points from a possible 12.

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Fifita was brilliant in last year’s series.

He smashed poor old Parramatta, which got some glazing over to thoughts of last year’s Game I when many wizened judges looked at each other with big eyes and whispered … Beetson?

It was about this time with all this conversation going on when Brad Fittler and his advisers Greg Alexander and Danny Buderus got together for their weekly scratch meeting, with names going into the teamsheet as others got scratched out, that Alexander brought up Fifita’s performance against the Eels.

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Fifita had declared himself for Tonga in the second round of rep games, on June 23, meaning he could play for the Blues only in the first and third games. Still, he was available, and Alexander thought it deserved a mention, if nothing else.

Fittler knows Origin stands for something more, though.

That intangible quality that can’t be grasped. That can’t be measured.

That quality that can be built but can’t be bought.

There are few survivors for the Blues from last year.

The great American basketball coach John Wooden had a sign painted on his gym wall. Sport is not character building, it said, sport is character revealing.

The line since got adapted to State of Origin football and never did anything fit more perfectly.

And because he understood all that Fittler’s response in regard to Fifita was short.

No.

Queensland has been the undisputed champions of character these past dozen years and if NSW is to turn the tide then Fittler knew more than talent was necessary.

He created, all by himself, a rare opportunity

Nobody has any certainty what will happen.

Fittler’s new look side, with 11 debutantes, against Queensland’s new look spine, has given the series a fresh uncertainty.

Queensland will still stick to its philosophies. The Maroons will still kick from their 40m line and rush to put NSW under attacking pressure.

This might be where the game is decided.

NSW’s back five is light and fast and not renowned for their bullocking runs to begin their teams’ sets.

But they must if the Blues are to have a chance.

Queensland will spoil and scramble with the knowledge that the longer the game goes and they are still in the contest the better it looks for them.

The Maroons always play the long game in Origin.

But even they have their uncertainties.

A bold new era begins on Wednesday night.

The core of their spine these past dozen years, Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk, Johnathan Thurston and Billy Slater, are undisputed matchwinners.

All Queensland’s great victories came on the back of their work.

The question that cannot be answered now is how many of Queensland’s were they collectively responsible for … and how much is left?

How much Origin DNA is among the survivors?

Knowing Origin, really knowing it, is not a matter of simply piling up games.

NSW showed when the pick and stick policy was applied sometime inside that losing streak all it did was foster more losses.

Fittler recognised it.

He addressed the lack of Origin character inside the Blues’ culture with no fuss.

He simply promised to pick players with a team-first mentality and then watched them hard through the first 12 rounds to see who fit.

He looked for simple things, such as how they responded and reacted with teammates.

Some failed it, the rest got picked.

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Originally published as The decision not to select Andrew Fifita shows how far New South Wales have come