State of Origin 2022: Brad Fittler to blame for NSW Blues all-time choke job

Brad Fittler pinpointed one incident — and star — for NSW’s all-time Origin choke. But the real culprit of the series loss is staring the coach in the mirror.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – JULY 13: Nathan Cleary of the Blues and Blues coach Brad Fittler look on after game three of the State of Origin Series between the Queensland Maroons and the New South Wales Blues at Suncorp Stadium on July 13, 2022, in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

So much for Brad Fittler’s NSW dynasty.

That’s now two series defeats in three years.

And this one, even more than Wayne Bennett’s shock victory in 2020 with “the worst Queensland team ever”, surely has to go down as one of the greatest chokes in Origin history.

But if the Blues are being fair dinkum when they sit down to do their series post-mortem, maybe coach Fittler should be front and centre when it comes to sharing of the criticism.

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It just seemed odd, and even a little unfair, that what Fittler labelled a “simple error” from Daniel Tupou was singled out in the post match media conference.

The towering Roosters winger dropped a tough Daly Cherry-Evans kick that swung in the breeze close to the sideline in the countdown to halftime.

On the back of that Harry Grant set up a try for Kurt Capewell in the dying seconds before the break.

There’s no doubt Tupou should have caught the ball, and it was a massive turning point.

As Fittler explained: “It took us a long time to get out of our end and to sort of get to the lead.

“And then obviously with a minute to go come up with an error that cost us a try. That hurt.”

But to be fair on Tupou, what also should be pointed out was that it wasn’t just the dropped ball that “cost us a try”.

It was also the genius of Grant that caught the Blues out with what Cooper Cronk was convinced was a “set play” to pick apart NSW’s left edge defence.

Daniel Tupou’s first-half error helped Queensland back into game three.

And how about we also look at some of the other errors that Fittler didn’t seem quite so hung up on later in his press conference.

Maybe Fittler didn’t feel the need to single out Penrith stars Nathan Cleary, Api Koroisau, Jarome Luai or Stephen Crichton, who all came up with equally critical blunders.

Koroisau was caught off-side on that Cleary grubber that cost Isaah Yeo a certain try.

It was a fundamental mistake that is almost inexcusable at this level because it was completely preventable.

All Koroisau had to do was get behind the kicker, not try and catch a bomb coming down half a metre from the sideline.

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Luai then threw that ridiculous pass near his own tryline that went sailing over the sideline.

Crichton came up with a howler of an offload just metres out that brought back memories of Phil Sigsworth’s infamous in-goal pass to Phil Duke.

While that Cleary chip kick at the death sealed the Blues’ fate.

Braith Anasta said in the Fox League commentary even before it happened that Cleary needed to land that kick on the try line.

Instead Cleary went for an all or nothing play that Ben Hunt swallowed and raced away with the match clinching try.

Nathan Cleary and Blues coach Brad Fittler.

Freddy’s bench selection Siosifa Talakai, who controversially got the start ahead of Jack Wighton, also had a horror night with three costly mistakes.

It’s also worth noting the Blues only completed 63 per cent in the second half compared to Queensland’s 82 per cent.

Then there was the inability to come up with the right plays at the right time that also let the Blues down badly.

That’s without even mentioning the fact NSW slaughtered Queensland 44-12 in game two and went into the decider labelled basically unbeatable after Queensland lost Cameron Munster to Covid.

But then the Blues went out and basically choked themselves out with a series of blunders that went well beyond one unlucky dropped ball.

That’s what you call a team effort.