Fittler says retired Cam Smith was scared of Baby Blues

Brad Fittler has questioned whether Cameron Smith retired because he lacked the stomach to take on the Baby Blues.

NSW coach Brad Fittler on the Brisbane River today before game three of the Origin series at Suncorp Stadium. Picture: Phil Hillyard.

Cameron Smith will be honoured before kick-off at Suncorp Stadium tomorrow night but NSW coach Brad Fittler was in no mood to pay tribute to the former Queensland captain today, instead questioning whether he retired because he lacked the stomach to take on the Baby Blues.

Fittler was in a bullish mood on the eve of the final State of Origin game as he also spoke about the prospect of a clean sweep, and the influence of confidants Greg Alexander and Danny Buderus over the course of the three games.

However, he saved his most incendiary comments for Smith, who retired in the lead-up to Origin citing a desire to spend more time with his family and devoting more energy to the Storm.

Fittler believes a greater motivation may have been fear of what was brewing south of the border with NSW selecting 11 rookies for the opening game of the series at the MCG.

“For whatever reason he might have thought we were picking 11 players that were harder than what he wanted to take on this year,” Fittler said. “When you look at it and talk about how experience is so (valuable) in Origin, we had 11 blokes in the first game beat a team that out-weighted us by how many Origin games.

“You take Cameron Smith out who’s a really good player — he’s a vital one — but 11 new blokes took them on and beat them.”

Smith’s retirement was just one of many things that went Fittler and NSW’s way over the course of the series. The Blues took on a Queensland side shorn of injured fullback Billy Slater in Melbourne and they will meet the Maroons sans Greg Inglis tomorrow night.

Queensland were already dealing with the retirements of Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk, the sense among many that Fittler has taken over NSW at the right time. Asked yesterday about comparisons with ice skater Steven Bradbury, who won an Olympic gold medal when the other skaters in the field fell, Fittler suggested that hard work rather than good luck played the decisive role in the Blues winning the series.

“Have you seen the doco they did on him?” Fittler said.

“He didn’t get the medal for going through and everyone falling over, he got the medal for breaking his jaw, he got the medal for breaking all his bones and he got the medal for all the build-up that went into that moment.

“He got himself into a position. He put in a lot of work and a lot of people have done the same. Cameron retires and (Queensland) players are injured … I don’t know. But we can’t control that at all. NSW has done a really good job at winning just about everything. They’ve won all the age groups the last few years, they’ve won the women’s now and obviously Queensland have fallen behind somewhere.”

While the Blues arrive in Brisbane with the series in their keeping and confidence on the rise, Queensland are in unfamiliar territory. A host of players are playing for their future in the Maroons jersey, although coach Kevin Walters was reluctant to suggest it was a case of perform or perish.

“We haven’t spoken about that at all,” Walters said. “If you look back to game two we got beaten by two goalkicks from James Maloney. We had different times in that game when we were in front and had opportunities to close out the game and couldn’t do it.

“So we’re not looking at it that way. Every game is important when you play for Queensland. When you wear that jersey you have to wear it with pride and do the jersey justice.”

Walters no doubt looks back on the last 15 minutes of Origin II with a sense of regret given Queensland had a one-man advantage — James Roberts was in the sin bin — and opportunities to win.

Fittler looks back on the same period with a sense of pride because those closing moments vindicated his decision to reshape Origin preparations. Fittler has thrown open training sessions and given unprecedented access to the media.

“We tried new things and they defended for 10 minutes at the end of game two and held them out,” Fittler said. “If we don’t hold them out we’re up here fighting for the thing and everyone’s saying, ‘allowing your players to the media might not be that good’.

“All it’s done has just shown if you take away distractions and put the team first you can do anything.

“It would be nice if some (NRL) clubs took that approach.

“I know what it’s like being in the media trying to get to clubs and players. It seems you’re all keen to write good stories and sometimes there’s no one there to give a story.

“It’s proven that 11 blokes on the biggest stage we offer, other than a grand final, can handle it.”

STATE OF ORIGIN III

Queensland v NSW

Suncorp Stadium, 8.15pm

1 Billy Slater (c)

2 Valentine Holmes

3 Dane Gagai

4 Will Chambers

5 Corey Oates

6 Cameron Munster

7 Daly Cherry-Evans

8 Jai Arrow

9 Andrew McCullough

10 Josh Papalii

11 Gavin Cooper

12 Felise Kaufusi

13 Josh McGuire

Interchange: Ben Hunt, Jarrod Wallace, Coen Hess, Tim Glasby

James Tedesco

Tom Trbojevic

Latrell Mitchell

James Roberts

Josh Addo-Carr

James Maloney

Nathan Cleary

David Klemmer

Damien Cook

Paul Vaughan

Boyd Cordner (c)

Tyson Frizell

Jack de Belin

Interchange: Tariq Sims, Jake Trbojevic, Angus Crichton, Tyrone Peachey

Referees: Gerard Sutton, Ashley Klein

Betting: Qld $2.25, NSW $1.67