Paul Kent: It’s crunch time for frazzled Freddy and the Blues
NSW Blues coach Brad Fittler is under pressure. Last year’s series victory is in the past, his unique ideas are all of a sudden questioned, and he must now find a way to turn the Origin tides, writes Paul Kent.
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For the first time as NSW State of Origin coach Brad Fittler has no second chances.
Every decision he makes ahead of Game II now has permanent ramifications. The coach can go barefoot in the park all he likes but make the wrong choice, and lose now, and the series is gone.
Fittler has not yet faced this as Origin coach.
Last year Fittler and his All-Star staff came into Origin with a fresh look that was celebrated, fresh ideas that were tolerated, and a fresh courage that was congratulated.
It all worked out.
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With 11 on debut they took the Game I honours 22-12. It was a 10-point win, the new team celebrated for its form and energy.
He took the series in Game II, a four-point victory at home, 18-14.
Queensland adjusted and won Game III 18-12 but it did not matter. The series was over and the Blues triumphant.
Fittler has now lost his past two Origin games and his record overall is 2-2.
Queensland has adapted for the new challenge, but can the Blues?
They blew it on Wednesday night and it wasn’t as simple as failed completions or missed opportunities but mistakes in the coaching box that cost NSW victory.
And until it is acknowledged it threatens to be repeated.
The talk around the game since Wednesday is how the inexperience of the NSW coaching staff, as top-flight coaches, was exposed.
The trouble came not in philosophy or big ideas but in the detail.
Cody Walker was replaced 56 minutes in. Fittler later explained Walker was yanked because he was “struggling to get into the game”.
It failed to make sense, on several fronts.
Walker went into the game as the best player in the NRL at creating something from nothing.
The Blues led 8-6 at the time, hardly enough points to win the game with 24 minutes still to play.
The mistake was admitted to when Walker was sent back on with NSW trailing 18-8 after Dane Gagai’s second try for Queensland. Walker played a part in NSW’s final try that saw the eventual 18-14 scoreline.
In Origin, where there is such a premium on forward dominance, using up an interchange to replace a five-eighth - who would later return once it got desperate - was close to unforgivable.
The rotation of the NSW bench is also being questioned.
David Klemmer played the entire first half and then the first 12 minutes of the second half.
Under cross examination after the game Fittler argued Klemmer, who is now out of the series after confirming he fractured his wrist, was going so well he saw no need to replace him.
The first rule of interchange is to finish the game with the middle forwards who began the game. Second, every middle forward who starts always has a little left at the end of his first stint, certainly if he is used properly.
But they need to be replaced so they can rest replenish for the final stint, when they are expected to bring their team home.
Fittler planned to deviate from this.
The strategy was to finish the game with a lighter, more manoeuvrable pack. So the NSW big men were intentionally left off and it backfired. Queensland, coming like the lighthorsemen, out-muscled them.
Fittler was once the game’s most instinctive player.
Tremendously talented, he belongs among the list of players who sit right behind the Immortals. His football intelligence came like it was pre-wired. He was playing football at three and learned enough early that he never seemed to make a bad decision.
And if he did he was always able to play his way out of it.
Now he tries to bring that football instinct to coaching but the environment is less forgiving. For one, Fittler does not have his own extraordinary playing talent to save the day.
So it highlights the need to be even more precise with the decision making.
The Blues coaching staff got together on Friday to watch the replay together for the first time. Alongside Fittler for NSW is his closest friend, advisor Greg Alexander, as well as Blues greats Andrew Johns, Danny Buderus and Craig Fitzgibbon.
Only Fitzgibbon, an assistant at the Roosters, is involved in the daily slog of video and repetition that is club coaching.
Before the game Fittler highlighted Fitzgibbon’s strength on staff. He brought the small habits of opposition players, the ones that can be learned only through day to day coaching in the NRL.
Now some serious coaching is required. There is small room for error, no second chances for NSW.
If the Blues are to turn it around, and if it began on Friday with an honest look at the performance, then it must also be an honest look at their own performance.
Everything must be questioned again.
Nathan Cleary was picked when out of form at club level and sold on the declaration he did the job last year.
When his shortcomings were pointed out it was argued he was young, or he performed the job that was asked, or that he was not a big game player but solid.
Predictably, he brought what he was doing for the Panthers to the Blues. Solid and dependable, but when NSW trailed and went looking for points there was nothing to be found.
The worry is an insistence from within that they “thought he played well”.
If only Cleary played second-row then it would have been a magnificent performance.
But Cleary is the creative brains in the team. His job is to manufacture points, like the replaced Walker.
Can NSW, with no losses left up their sleeve, afford to gamble on Cleary again?
History seems to have taught nothing.
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When NSW struggled to find a dominant halfback a decade ago the decision was made to pick a young Mitchell Pearce and stick with him even if it meant suffering a few early losses.
The persistence proved nothing but how futile hope is.
It damaged Pearce and changed little for NSW.
He took years to recover from criticism that was accurate but not his own fault. Like Cleary, he was simply a young man doing the best he could when his best wasn’t good enough
Unlike Cleary now, Pearce was the best halfback in NSW at the time. Cleary had the injured Adam Reynolds and Chad Townsend, Luke Brooks and even Pearce ahead of him on form.
Fittler’s difficulty is so much of what he thought was right before Game I is now wrong.
As he watches this weekend’s football he must ask what was temporary and what was permanent?
NSW played well on Wednesday but not well enough when it mattered.
Yesterday’s certainties are gone.
With no second chances the greatest improvement left is to come from the NSW coaching staff.
Thankfully, Fittler’s instinct was always first class.
ENGLISH FANS NEED TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR
The constant booing that accompanies Steve Smith and Dave Warner whenever they turn out for Australia in the World Cup, currently being played in England, is getting a little tiresome.
It shows the ignorance and hypocrisy of the English crowd, with a touch of stupidity.
This, from former English spinner Monty Panesar in his new book The Full Monty: “Whether we broke the laws depends on how you interpret them. We found that mints and sun cream had an effect on the saliva, and that helped the ball to reverse. I might also have ‘accidentally’ caught the ball on the zip of my trouser pocket to rough it up a little.”
I’d interpret that as cheating, given nothing more than saliva is allowed to be used, but that’s just me.
Ball tampering has been going on for a lot longer than Smith and Warner were at it and continues to be employed today, although far more carefully.
It was hardly exclusive to Australian cricket.
Nobody paid a penalty like Smith, Warner and Cameron Bancroft yet they continue to be insulted as if they were first offenders.
TROUBLING TIMES FOR AUSTRALIAN RUGBY
Rugby Australia boss Raelene Castle could do with a good dose of the Coach Whisperer and remove the qualifiers from her language.
The Coach Whisperer, Brad Stubbs, compels his students to remove weak qualifiers like might and could with strong statements of intent.
Fears that Israel Folau’s legal challenge to RA could send the game broke have circulated rugby all week and Castle hardly dispelled the rumours, particularly given some of the slippery truths other officials in other codes have been saying recently.
“I think it is an exaggeration to say it will imperil the game’s finances - I don’t believe that to be true,” Castle said.
Phrases like “I think …” and “I don’t believe …” leave just enough wiggle room to worry the keen observers.
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