State of Origin 2023: 11 contenders emerge to replace NSW Blues coach Brad Fittler
With Brad Fittler’s six-year tenure as NSW Blues coach likely coming to an end, 11 candidates with varying experience and personalities have been identified as possible replacements.
Eleven candidates with varying experience, personalities and qualities have been identified as possible candidates to replace Brad Fittler as NSW coach for next season.
Fittler’s six-year tenure as Blues coach appears doomed after a 32-6 thumping from Queensland on Wednesday night in Brisbane.
Victory gave Queensland a 2-0 series lead and consigned Origin III in Sydney to being a dead rubber.
Fittler had to win this year’s series to trigger a new deal for 2024. He could still be retained for next season but it would appear unlikely. The NSWRL board will select the new coach.
The list of NSW candidates is lengthy.
Matty Johns has previously said he wouldn’t consider the NSW job if it became available.
He told NewsCorp recently: “With my schedule it would be impossible. I made a decision a number of years ago that my future was in the media. Origin is way too big a commitment.”
Fittler has won three of his six series as NSW coach with his side favourites in 15 of his 17 games. Quizzed about his job after the Brisbane defeat, Fittler said: “We’ve got another game to go so I’ll worry about that.
“Then we’ll see what happens with ‘Troddo’ (NSWRL chief executive David Trodden) and the board. We’ve got a couple of weeks. We get an opportunity to tidy things up and turn things around and we can discuss it then.”
ORIGIN TACKLE: ONLY TWO MEN WHO CAN SAVE NSW
—Paul Crawley
Matty Johns or Ricky Stuart. They are the two standout options to lead NSW into the future.
If the Blues management want to go for someone who is not in the NRL coaching ranks, Johns would be tremendous.
He is an outstanding communicator and one of the smartest football brains in the game, who has proven himself as specialist coach who knows how to sell his message to players.
The fact Craig Bellamy used Johns for years to work with his halves said it all.
And don’t ignore what Billy Slater has done for Queensland.
Johns could also surround himself with an experienced coaching staff like Mal Meninga did during his all-conquering reign.
Stuart is the other standout option who has been there and done it all before, and no one on this planet has more passion about rugby league and NSW than the Canberra coach.
It is absolute nonsense that club coaches are not allowed to put their hand up for the job.
If the Blues backtrack and allow an NRL coach, Stuart is the man.
DISLIKES
FREDDY NEEDS TO OWN BLUES FAILURE
You could see the nervousness and pressure building on NSW coach Brad Fittler and chief advisor Greg Alexander during the entire build up.
And that is exactly how the team went out and played.
Fittler and Alexander were obviously still burning from the criticism they copped in the aftermath of game one.
But like they always say in big time sport, if you carry your divots you end up getting buried in the hole.
And that is how it unfortunately panned out.
The first half from the Blues was as close to incompetent as you will get at State of Origin level.
They had a mountain of ball and plenty of chances, but they bombed the lot with poor kick options, dropped balls, knock-ons, passes thrown over the sideline. It was so far below what is expected at Origin level it was embarrassing.
The fact Mitchell Moses, who only came into the team to replace the injured Nathan Cleary, was NSW’s best player in the opening 40 minutes said it all.
From there Queensland just ran away with the game with a crushing 32-6 victory against a Blues team that went into this series as heavy favourites.
That is now three of the last four series the Blues have lost under Fittler.
There is not a NSW fan out there that didn’t want to see Fittler succeed. But on the back of what we all saw there is just no way he can survive for next year.
WHY WAS MURRAY BENCHED?
It was mind boggling that NSW workhorse Cameron Murray didn’t get a minute of action in the opening 40 minutes.
What the hell was the Blues’ brains trust thinking?
Murray was one of NSW’s best in game one along with Liam Martin.
And when Tom Trbojevic went down in the opening minutes, to send Damien Cook out to play in the centres and leave Murray sidelined was just madness.
In no way is this a knock on Cook because he tried his guts out.
But Murray is an experienced edge forward who has previously played outstandingly in the centres, yet he was overlooked here.
It meant the Blues also lost the chance to do what they picked Cook to do all along, which was try and create chaos in the middle of the ruck around the tiring forwards.
FORWARD PASS HOWLER
Not that it mattered in the end. But Blues fans had every right to be filthy at the forward pass from David Fifita that led to Murray Taulagi’s try to take the Maroons to a 10-0 lead in the 33rd minute.
When is the NRL going to either bring in the forward pass technology they have been working on for years, or at least let the Bunker make its call on forward passes in the lead up to tries?
It’s outrageous that everyone watching the game on TV can see the mistake but the match officials sitting with the multimillion-dollar technology aren’t allowed to act.
LIKES
DCE INSPIRES A MIGHTY SERIES VICTORY
There was a time when Daly Cherry-Evans was seen as outcast among the Queensland Origin team. But the way he has fought back to become one of the great Origin leaders is an obvious testament to his character.
The champion halfback was unlucky not to get the Australian No.7 jumper at last year’s World Cup with Mal Meninga sticking with Nathan Cleary, despite the fact Cherry-Evans led the Maroons to an Origin victory last year.
But if they were picking an Australian team now, he has to not only be in the starting team but as the captain.
SLATER AN ORIGIN MASTERCOACH
What about the coaching effort from Billy Slater?
Don’t forget the Maroons won last year’s decider without Cameron Munster.
And this year has taken them to the next level with a cool, calm and collected approach that is backed up with his attention to detail which was one of the biggest differences between the two teams.
Slater just never looks rattled and it shows in his players.
COLLINS WORTHY OF A STANDING OVATION
The Queensland crowd gave Lindsay Collins the send-off he deserved when he left the field in the second half.
What an inspired performance from the Roosters prop.
In game one Collins was the hero when he out jumped James Tedesco for that crucial late try.
This time it was his incredible Origin style efforts that proved so valuable.
He finished with the most metres of any of the Queensland forwards with 13 runs for 121m, but it was the desperate efforts in defence and some bone crunching tackles that lifted his team when they needed him the most.
NOW THAT’S AN ORIGIN ATMOSPHERE
They didn’t need to give away two-for-one tickets to pack out Suncorp Stadium.
Unlike the last ditch attempt in Adelaide to try and save the embarrassment of half empty stands, this time there wasn’t an empty seat.
And what about the noise and electric atmosphere as the players took the field.
It just confirmed why Origin belongs in either Queensland or NSW, the way it used to be.
More Coverage
Broncos, NRL level Mam with monster fine after drug driving
Broncos five-eighth Ezra Mam has formally accepted the NRL’s nine-game ban for his drug driving offences, and has copped a significantly heavier fine from his club compared to the courts.
Raiders scouting report: Canberra’s best 17, Ricky’s youth brigade
Will a void of experience in their player roster hurt Ricky Stuart’s youthful Raiders in 2025? FATIMA KDOUH breaks down Canberra’s best 17, issues facing the club, rookies to watch and more in our Raiders deep dive.