State of Origin 2022: Why NSW Blues were wrong to axe Jake Trbojevic, Paul Kent

NSW has long been accused of not getting what Origin was about, and by cutting the heart and soul of their team they’ve proved the critics right, writes Paul Kent.

Jake Trbojevic is made for Origin, and the Blues may regret not sticking with the reliable star. Picture: Getty Images.

Jake Trbojevic is made for the kind of Origin moments the Blues rarely stand accused of, and one which they take great offence at not receiving.

It has become an annual conversation, the quick follow-up to team announcements.

Some years back it went around the game, with a special kind of venom reserved only for State of Origin football and wharf disputes, that NSW didn’t get Origin like Queensland got it.

It was something internal, went the propaganda. Whatever this elixir was, it was revealed most often in hindsight after Queensland had pulled off some minor loaves and fishes miracle and almost casually somebody would point to it, like it was an afterthought, as another example of Queensland’s innate understanding of Origin.

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And it would have been annoying if it didn’t happen so often.

The Maroons were somewhere in the middle of their Decade of Dominance and took spiteful delight in celebrating NSW’s misery.

They were matched only by the Blues offence at the allegation.

As the Blues tinkered with combinations in a haphazard attempt to get it right the Maroons sat back chuckling at what they saw before them.

Jake Trbojevic is made for Origin, and the Blues may regret not sticking with the reliable star. Picture: Getty Images.

The halfback position was the troublesome spot.

It was Brett Finch, then Craig Gower, and then Jarrod Mullen and Brett Kimmorley, all in two losing series, before it went to Peter Wallace next, and it went on for five years until Ricky Stuart declared he was going to pick a half and declare him his man, win or lose, to guard him from criticism and reinforce confidence.

Along came Mitch Pearce.

At the same time the Maroons kept picking the likes of Nate Myles, an honest tradesman who, much like Wally Lewis’s brief NRL career, usually punctuated each season with three mesmerising performances, always in the Maroon.

Myles was a good club player who was picked in a time of need for the Maroons and he delivered, and then some, so it was natural he got picked again.

He constantly repaid the faith.

Trbojevic was a similar kind of player for the Blues.

Rolled up in the criticism of not “getting” what Origin is about, which is more felt than articulated, is the accusation the Blues can occasionally be found a little short in the grit department because too often they fall in love with the kind of players that Gorden Tallis calls “scoreboard players”.

The key to Queensland’s decade of dominance was staying loyal, and Trbojevic was the kind of guy who always repaid the faith. Picture: Getty Images.

The Blues pick form players who can light up an attack while Queensland picks a team that will defend its way to victory, picked from men who have more often done the job before.

The difference is the mentality, taken as a private insult by the Blues but one they have never been able to shake.

Not picking Trbojevic weakens their case.

If he was a Queensland player he would, like Myles, be first row on the bus every time.

The argument against Trbojevic is that he is not a play one or play two ballrunner to get the Blues out of yardage.

And that he is a ballplayer in a team that already possesses Isaah Yeo and Cameron Murray.

Overlooked are his true assets.

He is the best in the game at forcing errors in attack, most commonly when he hits a ballrunner under the ball, pushing a rib somewhere into the thorax region, and the ball pops loose.

“You cannot buy that,” says his coach at Manly, Des Hasler, who appreciates him enormously.

“He gets you the ball. He forces an error in offence.”

Start picking through the assets Trbojevic brings to the game and it is quick to see how valuable he is in an Origin jersey.

He has one of the quickest play-the-balls in the game, vital in Origin.

Given his play-the-ball speed is generally measured over 80 minutes and not 35 minutes, as many middle forwards are, it finds greater importance.

And when Origin games get down to that place in the game where the lungs are slowly being torched and the legs are about to wobble off at the axles Jake Trbojevic has the ability to put himself at the place in the game where it matters.

Trbojevic is the best at the game at forcing errors and has one of the quickest play-the-balls in the game, writes Paul Kent.

A tackle save, an ankle tapped, falling on a loose ball, often where he is not expected to be.

As has been said by others before, in what is now a familiar turn of phrase, Trbojevic will put his head in places others won’t put their feet, all for his team.

Regardless, it is

This NSW squad is unlike recent versions.

Coach Brad Fittler said two years ago that any player who might bring contract negotiations into camp risked not being picked, yet the early days of this camp already is being dominated by Payne Haas and Ryan Matterson’s contract negotiations.

The wingers were picked as a pre-emptive strike against who Queensland chose.

There is just enough change that an anchor would have been Trbojevic, who on his sweaty brow carried a care for his teammates, among the matted hair, that went beyond himself.