Queensland thrash NSW to seal Origin series after two send-offs for brawl

Damien Cook is standing in a part of the field where he didn’t really belong, and a ball is whizzing his way. He knows on his outside is speedster Josh Addo-Carr and a patch of green grass he will cover in a few milliseconds.

It’s a State of Origin moment, a half-chance which must be turned into a full chance. Win most of those, mostly win Origin.

Cook has a choice: catch the ball and try to pass it quickly, or get out of the way and hope like hell it gets to Addo-Carr. He decides to get out of the way. He cranes his neck, but craning is not enough, and the ball cannons straight into his head. In rugby league parlance, a falcon.

If this is the end for Brad Fittler, it is the call which will live with NSW fans for a long time; a hooker playing almost an entire Origin game at centre, busting his backside in a position he’s never started at in the NRL, while spending all week planning to bombard Queensland through the middle with two running No.9s.

By the end of it, NSW five-eighth Jarome Luai and Queensland fullback Reece Walsh were sent off for headbutting in a brawl during the final 30 seconds, while Josh Addo-Carr went to the sin-bin for punching. The fight was long over, and partially because of on-the-run decisions inside the first few minutes.

After fiddling with genuine utilities, centres and even halfbacks on the bench during his Origin reign, Fittler couldn’t catch a break with a bench spot he never really mastered.

Valentine Holmes scores his second try of Origin II.Credit: Getty

Fittler couldn’t have prepared to lose Tom Trbojevic to a pectoral injury inside three minutes, but he might lose a whole lot more now as Queensland wrapped up the Origin series inside two games with a 32-6 beating at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday night. All the while Cameron Murray, who has done a job in the back row and centre in the past, sat on the bench for the entire first half.

For the second straight year, Queensland coach Billy Slater won an Origin series. Fittler has lost two in a row. It followed the same script from game one in Adelaide, NSW having enough ball to win three games and not doing nearly enough with it to win one.

Mercifully, Cook scored their only try when the result was beyond doubt, the rugby league gods laughing at us in a way they only can.

It might end this way for Fittler, but it didn’t start like this.

Remember when Fittler was first appointed to the job and he started driving all around NSW on his motorbike to preach the gospel the state’s team wasn’t one they should turn their noses up at? Appearances in Dubbo and Deniliquin meant as much to Fittler as his players who lived in Double Bay.

His players kept up appearances too, dressed in the all black casual outfits like the reincarnation of Human Nature, and walked the ground among the fans who would shout their names from the stand.

But time stands still for no-one, and Fittler’s players walked into their annual Suncorp Stadium death march wearing the most appropriate outfit: grey tracksuits. Their mood resembled it.

Queensland led 10-0 at the break, and it was deja vu from Adelaide. NSW had most of the ball, and mostly came up with nothing.

Despite swapping his wingers to the opposite flanks from game one, not even the taller Josh Addo-Carr could stop the first points as he touched a Daly Cherry-Evans bomb under a Xavier Coates challenge. Valentine Holmes scored, because it’s Origin.

Hudson Young and Tom Flegler face off.Credit: Getty

But the first half was punctuated by two minutes involving Queensland captain Cherry-Evans, who sprinted from the other side of the field to drag down a runaway Stephen Crichton. NSW’s attack fizzled out when Cook tried to leave the cutout pass, and left with a headache.

Off the next set Cherry-Evans streaked downfield after a Patrick Carrigan offload, and despite James Tedesco bringing him down, Murray Taulagi scored moments later against a frazzled defensive line, albeit off a dubious pass in the build-up from David Fifita.

And so it went after the break. Holmes scored again, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow got a bounce of the ball because he’s a Queenslander in the right spot, Xavier Coates, Jeremiah Nanai. It only stopped because the whistle said so, after the headbutts and punches and needless affray.

Addo-Carr and Walsh left the field thumping the badge on their chest, and Blues fans left scratching their heads.

QUEENSLAND 32 (Valentine Holmes 2, Murray Taulagi, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, Xavier Coates, Jeremiah Nanai tries; Holmes 4 goals) defeated NSW 6 (Damien Cook try; Stephen Crichton goal) at Suncorp Stadium. Referee: Ashley Klein. Crowd: 52,433.

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