Paul Kent column: Tension builds as Brad Fittler rolls the Origin selection dice again

The personnel changes after Origin I have come thick and fast. But does that mean Brad Fittler got it wrong the first time or is about to get it seriously wrong the second time, writes Paul Kent.

Brad Fittler looks on while waiting for the team photo to be taken during a New South Wales State of Origin media opportunity at Scarboro Surf Life Saving Club on June 20, 2022 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

Once again the riverboat gambler that lurks within Brad Fittler has surfaced.

Fittler was once considered a carefree soul, a label he wore very comfortably, but he is wrestling with his reputation at the moment.

Some have poured back through the sportspages to the days when he was appointed the Roosters new coach near the end of the 2007 season and there was Freddy, laughing and snacking on sandwiches during games in the coaches box.

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Blues coach Brad Fittler has been wielded the axe and Queensland fans are no doubt watching with a sense of glee.

He brought a joy that defied the job.

Coaching was supposed to be a stressful, hurtful business, filled with late nights and blurry eyes from watching too much video.

Not Freddy.

He took over the troubled Roosters and somehow they began strongly and went on with it, going on something of a run. Some believed he had a future in this coaching caper, as other coaches suddenly began eyeing the sandwiches in the coaches box.

Everybody wondered how long it could last, and then we got the answer.

By the end of the 2009 season the Roosters were solid last and Fittler was moving on.

Like a flare through the sky, it was bright and brilliant and short. Throughout, his mood reflected his fate.

And now here we are again more than a decade later and the same blueprint seems to be being followed.

The pressure is mounting on Fittler after the wholesale changes for Origin II in Perth.

Fittler landed as Origin coach about the time Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk were retiring and then, just weeks before Game I, he suffered the unimaginable setback of Cameron Smith also retiring.

Surely he wanted to test himself against the best but, alas, Fittler was forced to take on Queensland without Smith or any of their Big Four and, overcoming that, they took the series for the first time four years.

A year later Fittler somehow lost the first game and gambled on seven changes for Game II, and he took the series 2-1.

With that fresh in his mind Fittler adopted a similar strategy Sunday night, bringing his wholesale changes.

Once again, the latest team selections obey no law of logic the modern coaches like to follow but Fittler has defended the changes, albeit with a fresh tension in his voice.

“I was confident with the first team, but I have got to pick a team we can go over there and win with and this is it,” Fittler said at the airport on Monday morning.

“When you get beat, you need to reassess.

“We have no safety net at the moment, went into the first game thinking a certain way about how the game would go and what we could do but it didn’t happen.

“So going to Perth with a team I think we can win with.”

The happy go lucky Fittler from several years back, ordering his players to take off their shoes and walk on the grass to soak up the minerals, a herbal tea nearby, has been replaced by a man carrying the stress just below the surface.

The simple logic, given the amount of changes, suggest Fittler either got the team wrong for Game I or is about to get it wrong for Game II.

How much was corrected remains to be seen. How much second guessing of themselves drove these recent changes is also up for trial. Most Origin coaches treat Origin as a three-game series and prefer to make minimal changes from game to game to continue building team cohesion throughout the series.

Fittler dared test this logic before and came up a winner, as he hopes again.

The result in Perth on Sunday will provide the answer.

Certainly there was a wider belief before Game I that Fittler had picked the wrong middle forwards.

Did Fittler get the team wrong for game I? Time will tell.

The argument went that they were slow, which was revealed in the performance.

As well as that Cameron Murray, a middle forward at Souths, was picked to play on an edge. This selection has been repeated for the Perth game.

Against that the Blues were caught short in what should be the mainstay of Origin coaching: winning the ruck.

Here Billy Slater, in his first game, outcoached Fittler. The Maroons won the battle at the ruck, holding the Blues down beyond the count of three as referee Ashley Klein kept his whistle in his pocket.

Klein is due to be appointed for Game II.

The Blues were unprepared for it, which was the worry.

This is an old Origin trick, although it invariably plays out the same way.

Reagan Campbell-Gillard, Ryan Matterson, Kotoni Staggs and Tariq Sims are all out of the side for Origin Game II.

When Wayne Bennett was coaching a rag-tag Queensland bunch many winters ago he got surprised by NSW’s defensive fouls, and a little dirty that it happened.

Back then, the rule was the defence as not allowed to move until the ball had cleared the ruck and the Blues were jumping early all night. They took the first game, the first game on the back of what was developing as a golden era for the Blues.

So Bennett worked his players on it all during camp for the next game, standing in the middle of the field like a wartime general, tapping his foot to the ball and watching his team jump the line.

It was the end of the Blues era at that very moment.

Now we wonder whether Slater created a similar change in Game I or whether Fittler, gambling again, can refind the bounce in his own game.

Originally published as Paul Kent column: Tension builds as Brad Fittler rolls the Origin selection dice again