State of Origin: Boyd Cordner delivers on Brad Fittler’s belief

A relationship that began nearly a decade ago between Boyd Cordner and Brad Fittler reached an awkward exclamation point.

NSW players celebrate with the State of Origin shield at Suncorp Stadium last night. Picture: AAP

NSW are defending for six consecutive sets. Queensland have 70 per cent of possession. Daly Cherry-Evans has the ball on a string. The Suncorp Stadium faithful is in full concert voice when James Maloney is sin-binned for a professional foul. The Blues are perilously close to being out on their feet. It’s nearly halftime.

They’re labouring. The ground has a slope and they’re running up the hill. They have only 12 men. The Maroons are playing as if they can do no wrong — and then Cameron Munster gets it wrong.

The Blues cannot score points because they don’t have the ball — but then they get the ball. In the 32nd minute, Munster throws an intercept pass for Blues winger Tom Trbojevic to run 90 metres and score. The Blues have defended themselves to a standstill but they’re only 8-6 down. They’ve been lauded for their attacking weaponry before the series but it’s their tackling that is serving them best. And then Blues hooker Damien Cook, who’s been coming out of dummy half like a lifesaver racing for the last flag in a beach sprint, gives a short ball to James Tedesco. The gap opens up like Sydney heads because Maroons’ forward Josh McGuire has charged at Cook instead of Tedesco, who scores without a hand laid on him. Having back-pedalled and defended for the vast majority of the half, the Blues lead 12-8 at the break. Remarkable.

Less than an hour later, they’ve lost 18-12. They’ve won the series but this is still a defeat. A relationship that began nearly a decade ago between Blues captain Boyd Cordner and coach Brad Fittler reaches an awkward exclamation point when they raise the Origin trophy after the Blues’ 2-1 series victory.

“It’s pleasing to get the series win but it’s a bit empty,” Cordner says. “It takes the edge off it a bit. All our hard effort got us the series win but this puts a dampener on it. Disappointing to lose that one up here.”

Cordner was under pressure to make the Blues squad after a slow start to the NRL season. Yet Fittler went out of his way to support Cordner and publicly nominate him as the first player chosen for a contest that ended on a deflating note in enemy territory.

Cordner’s young for a leader. The 26-year-old had the appearance of the true league gladiator when he thrust the shield above his head. Fittler pumped his fist and grinned in the knowledge that his Origin masterplan — an ambitious and risky philosophy that included picking 13 rookies in his first year as coach — had come together in spectacular fashion.

Cordner first crossed paths with Fittler when he moved to the Sydney Roosters from the NSW country town of Taree. A 16-year-old earmarked for massive things in the big smoke, Cordner was called up to train with the first-grade squad in Fittler’s last year in charge at the Roosters. Last night they shared the headiness of Origin success. Fittler has been something of a new-age coaching guru in concert with the old-fashioned grunt of Cordner.

“I’ve come across so many influential people in rugby league,” Cordner said. “A lot of playing legends who have done it before and coaches who really know the game inside-out. I’ve never really set out to be a leader. I never actually thought, I want to be a captain. It’s just something that you’re brought up, your values as a kid that are drilled into you from a young age. But I had a lot of growing up to do at a young age.

“I moved to Sydney when I was 16 and got thrown in the deep end. I was training with the Roosters at 16 when Freddy was the coach. We go back a fair way and I suppose the growing up I had to do from a young age has ended up making me the kind of player that is suited to being a captain.”