State of Origin 2017: Why it isn’t fair to solely blame Mitchell Pearce for the Blues defeat
MITCHELL Pearce is again being blamed for the Blues woes but it isn’t all his fault writes PAUL KENT.
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IN the grandstand where they want their winners packaged and flawless, the weight of public opinion changes one slow page at a time.
Mitch Pearce does not fit the narrative of winning Origin football. The people continue to whinge and moan and demand change.
Pearce has almost solely remained the focus of NSW’s loss on Wednesday, particularly in light of Andrew Johns’s comment that the Blues played “dumb” football.
The two points are not exclusive to each other.
Those championing for the replacement of Pearce or blaming the referees for the loss refuse to accept the realities of the situation and while NSW continues to think this way it will never win.
The Blues continue to shape a narrative that is far less honest.
They did not target the injured Johnathan Thurston in defence, they say, which left Johns dumbfounded, because he defended on the wing.
Thurston defended three in.
Jarryd Hayne said he was “pissed off” about the match officials and some of their calls.
Hayne blew a try that would have taken the score from 16-6 to 20-6, possibly 22-6.
In far more subdued tones than his criticism of the referees, Hayne addressed it in that unaccountable way.
“That one with B-Moz (Brett Morris) where I tried to go around my back,” Hayne said yesterday. “If it comes off, it’s unbelievable. But obviously it didn’t.”
He goes for the unbelievable, the highlight reel play. All he had to do, three steps earlier, was draw and pass to put Morris in the corner.
Instead he goes for Showtime.
“You look at the scheme of the game and I definitely should’ve held it,” he said.
“For me personally, I’m obviously devastated with that.”
Hayne’s decision had a far more direct impact on the scoreboard than any single refereeing decision.
Wayne Bennett, on Brisbane radio Thursday morning, called what we all saw: “For Jarryd Hayne, there’s no excuses for why he didn’t pass the ball to Morris.”
Yet, out of the Blues camp, nothing.
Bennett also singled out Wade Graham’s lack of discipline to rush out of the defensive line.
He came up too quick and Josh McGuire got around him and 70m later Dane Gagai scored. Nobody mentions that, though.
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Bennett, a former Origin coach, is dropping nuggets of gold in NSW’s pockets and they can’t see it for blaming the referees.
Everyone else blames Pearce.
And the Blues act hurt that their game is questioned.
It is time to end the Pearce debate forever.
None of Pearce’s detractors will acknowledge that he is being compared against Queensland’s playmakers, who are the greatest collection of thinkers we have seen.
Worse than that, he is one man out.
The only argument about Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston and Billy Slater at fullback is what order they should be inducted as Immortals.
Throw in Cooper Cronk, the embodiment of programming a game plan from screen to player, and that is some quartet.
Yet we judge Pearce, all alone, as if he should be their equal.
Smith has advantages available to him that Pearce doesn’t.
Cronk and Thurston have advantages to him that Pearce doesn’t.
They have each other.
Cronk wears the same number as Pearce and by the time he gets the ball the greatest dummy-half to ever play the game has already decided whether Cronk will even get it.
Instead he might decide he will go the other side to Thurston. Whichever he does we can be reasonably confident that is the best attacking opportunity.
When Cronk gets the ball he has Slater sweeping and Thurston as an option.
Of course he is more chance of doing something.
Even still, who can name one great play Cronk came up with on Wednesday? Besides that kink in Game I, what else is remembered?
Answer is Cronk doesn’t need to be outstanding every game because when he is not one of the others steps forward and fills the space.
The others were doing it around him on Wednesday, they didn’t need Cronk.
Pearce has nothing like that.
That sharing of responsibilities transfers to the kicking game.
Pearce kicked 13 times on Wednesday. James Maloney four. Jarryd Hayne kicked twice.
Hooker Nathan Peats isn’t a kicker. Not even as an option out of dummy-half to even make Queensland think twice about getting out of marker fast.
For Queensland, Smith kicked six times, Cronk five, Thurston eight.
Who, out of that, does NSW target? You bet, focus on one at the peril of the others.
Queensland’s choice of target is clear.
Nearly 70 per cent of NSW’s kicking fell to Pearce.
NSW’s problem isn’t Pearce, it is Pearce’s problem.
Queensland is blessed with three players who come along once in a lifetime who share the burden. Before that there was Lockyer, who Pearce also had to deal with.
The Blues simply don’t have the pedigree of Queensland.
Not just at No. 7 but all around.
Not that Pearce is free from criticism.
He should have realised NSW moved away from the game plan that got them ahead 16-6 and began playing laterally, with shifts and block plays that do nothing at Origin level except allow the defence the chance to reset.
But it is a community decision. A community that, in the land of the Blues, has no forgiveness and less understanding.
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