Paul Kent: Game III is a chance for the Blues to throw Maroons into disarray for years to come
THE Blues have the opportunity to throw the Maroons into turmoil. To make them second guess themselves, the way NSW once did, with no easy way out, writes Paul Kent.
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THE Blues seemed sure of their intent on Friday. It was unusual only that this whole series has been about doubt.
But it was there in the morning sun on Friday at Coogee Oval. James Maloney, to nobody’s surprise, kept up the rat-a-tat-tat dialogue.
“Execute under fatigue,” he said, turning to his teammates.
Tommy Trbojevic took a drink. “Keep the talk up,” he said.
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Boyd Cordner, the captain, took a drink. “Let’s get it done,” he said.
Cordner moved freely but failed to do the entire session with his NSW teammates. There were times he slipped up the northern end for run-throughs, stutter kicks, high steps.
His ankles were strapped. His troublesome calf remained strapping free.
“Win the first one,” Maloney said, talking of the first tackle on the kick-chase. “Let’s keep on going after them.”
He spat out water.
The Blues were running an opposed session, neat and sharp.
Right edge against the left edge, the field at three-quarter width.
Cordner, his face heavy with sweat, took a drink.
“Keep breathing,” he said.
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They began with defensive wrestles, wrestling and up-downs, and as their breathing began to labour just a touch the left edge donned right orange bibs and began opposing each other
They were rehearsing transition football. Five tackles, a kick, a quick transition from attack to defence.
Brad Fittler watched on from the middle of the field while a little behind and off to the side Andrew Johns mostly talked to the actor, Simon Baker.
Baker, who stars in The Mentalist, is no late blow-in to NSW’s success.
NSW Rugby League boss Dave Trodden was once engaged to deliver Baker tickets for the famous Game II in Sydney in 2014 and recalled Trent Hodkinson scoring the series-winning try.
Trodden leapt to his feet about the same time Baker, sitting below him, suddenly got doused in beer.
“You remember that game in Sydney when the Blues won the series and some idiot covered you in beer?” Trodden asked Baker
“I’m guessing you’re that idiot,” Baker said.
Trodden pleaded temporary insanity. He was leaping to his feet when he accidentally kicked his beer.
The Blues were going slowly for the throat on Friday.
There is more than an opportunity for a clean sweep in Brisbane next Wednesday.
There is the opportunity to throw the Maroons into disarray. To make them second guess themselves, the way NSW once did, with no easy way out.
The way NSW were.
For much of the dozen years Queensland dominated Origin the Blues were their own worst enemy.
They tinkered with 19 different halves combinations in that 12 years.
They stuck with ageing players because they knew what they could get out of them, even if it didn’t appear that winning was part of it.
They made change to get the right combinations and when that didn’t work they stuck loyal because loyalty, like Queensland had, was missing. Even if they were underperforming.
Each loss created more uncertainty. That Fittler picked 11 debutantes for this year’s winning series shows how far off track the Blues drifted.
Queensland rejoiced in it. They laughed at the Blues, struggling to get it right.
Johnathan Thurston and Will Chambers turned toxic towards Mitchell Pearce in 2015 when Queensland won back the series. Pearce had become the favourite whipping boy for not only the Maroons but all of Queensland.
And the problem was only winning could change it.
And with each new series, and each new combination the Blues tried, nobody bothered to pay a whole lot of attention to the absolute truth of it all; that Queensland was blessed with a core group of once-in-a-generation players who not only all came along at the same time, but all played in the key positions.
The retirements of Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk from representative football this year has gutted the Maroons, and for more than just their combined playing talents.
When the Maroons got it wrong in Game I last year, losing to the Blues 28-4, Queensland coach Kevin Walters sought his senior players input before Game II.
Billy Slater was rushed back, the Maroons almost apologetic about overlooking him for the first game.
Walters chose Tim Glasby, completely unheralded, on Smith’s advice. It was a masterstroke.
He brought in Valentine Holmes, a natural tryscorer. Jarrod Wallace toughened them up through the middle. Coen Hess brought energy off the bench.
All four decisions were specifically addressed Queensland’s Game I failings. Walters nailed it.
He did it again in game three, gambling with Cameron Munster at five-eighth after Thurston’s injury.
Smith told him Munster would more than handle it. Walters trusted him. Munster delivered.
The Maroons don’t have them now, though.
The early optimism is gone.
Before Game I Walters said Ben Hunt owned the team now big guns were gone.
The Maroons and the only changes for Game II came through injury.
Another loss in Game II, though and the Maroons are in quiet disarray.
Hunt no longer owns the team. He is on the bench for Game III and Daly Cherry-Evans is in. If NSW can beat Queensland with Cherry-Evans at seven, does Ash Taylor come in next year?
Both props, Dylan Napa and Jarrod Wallace, have been dropped from the starting line-up.
Doubt has crept in. The Maroons are tinkering.
Fittler knows the opportunity available to NSW.
He began messing with Queensland’s head when he picked his 11 new faces for Game I. The yoga, the taking the shoes off to soak up the minerals in the grass and the complete buy-in from his players add to his crazy mystique and deepens Queensland’s concern.
Fittler knows if Queensland win Wednesday then Walters rolls this team into next year’s series. Lose, however, and he has to think of the changes he needs to make … while questioning if the changes already made were the correct ones.
“There’s been a lot of doubt covering NSW for a long time,” Fittler said.
“There was doubt this year again with the team we picked.
“The only way to change that was to win.”
Fittler knows the double opportunity now available. Not only can the Blues sweep the series for the first time since 2000 but he can also leave Queensland in a state of deep confusion about where to go next.
“Everyone is fully aware of what the consequences are of winning and losing,” he said, when asked about it.
The session was over the Blues pulled off their boots and, barefoot, began walking a lap.
The coaching staff revealed their lilywhite feet, too.
“James Maloney said this was the best grass in Australia for minerals,” Fittler said.
GOVERNMENT, DONNELLY HAVE FAILED PARRAMATTA
EACH new day reveals how much the NSW State Government has failed the Parramatta Eels by appointing Max Donnelly as an administrator.
Donnelly was appointed by the NSW Government to bring constitutional amendment after the salary cap scandal.
So far more than $1.5 million has been paid to Donnelly and his employer Ferrier Hodgson in fees, the Eels have run up a $25 million debt, the club is losing ground in the poker machine turnover, the football department is teetering on ruin, Brad Arthur was refused even the basic requirement of a football general manager and yet, still no constitutional amendment.
And why? Because each amendment that goes to members usually contains a clause so preposterous the whole thing gets voted down by members.
Arthur did not even have an assistant coach until round seven when David Kidwell was appointed. Meanwhile, the debt has blown out because of the car park construction.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian needs to intervene.
SILVER LINING IN BASKETBALL BRAWL
FOR all the tut-tutting about the basketbrawl in The Philippines, it was just what the sport needed.
At least we know that basketball is still there.
The NBL is on the comeback in Australia but a lot of people still couldn’t tell you a thing about it, or where it went.
Andrew Bogut is back to play for the Sydney Kings and has the potential to bring back the crowds but a lot of work still needs to be done.
Suddenly becoming a topic worth talking gave basketball something it has not had for years: relevance.