Origin disaster class: Why Brad Fittler must go

It has happened again. Queensland have defied the so called "odds" to retain the State of Origin trophy for 2023. With a game to go no less.

With almost nothing between the sides, talent-wise, it was clear how this series was won and lost - in the coaching box.

To put it nicely Brad Fittler was comprehensively outcoached. At every single opportunity/

As a Sharks fan I will never forgive what "Freddy" did to Nicho Hynes in Game 1.

Picked without a plan or role in mind, I am convinced that Hynes was only selected to avoid the backlash received last year when Fittler outrageously overlooked Josh Addo-Carr.

Despite being in the system for two years now, Hynes was overlooked as an option in the halves. Given the success enjoyed at club level, you can understand why Jarome Luai and Nathan Cleary were the option.

Hynes was supposedly picked to play in a dummy half role. A position perhaps more suited to a player who had ever played nine in his NRL career. Damien Cook perhaps.

Given Apisai Koroisau was playing so well, Hynes was destined to ride the pine for 80 minutes in his Origin debut.

Then, with Tom Trbojevic ruled out via a HIA - due to foul play - Hynes was thrown into an unfamiliar position having not warmed up.

Instead of activating his concussion sub, former Dally M centre of the year Matt Buron, Fittler opted to throw Hynes on cold where he was rapidly burned.

Hynes was then made a scapegoat, dropped entirely from the Game Two squad without a chance to atone for his error, perhaps again in a role he was accustomed, and allowed to warm up previously to fulfil.

Hynes is on record as saying his confidence took a huge shot.

With Nathan Cleary injured, and Hynes named the next man up, of course Fittler went for a left field option in selecting Mitch Moses for the do-or-die clash.

Then there's the fact that Fittler, and his hopelessly out of touch advisor Greg Alexander, overlooked Campbell Graham not once, but twice. Ok he may have been ruled out of Game One through injury ... but so was Latrell Mitchell. Twice!

Game 1 also saw the head scratching decision of naming Tevita Pangai Junior.

The Bulldogs big man had long been thought of as an Origin hopeful, but was selected on the back of one good game.

Meanwhile David Klemmer, who at the time had missed one tackle all season, seems to have been resigned to the "never again" pile. Reagan Campbell-Gillard was reportedly set to be again overlooked despite being the game's form prop prior to injury.

Following his moment of madness, an ill-timed offload that turned the game in favour of the Maroons, TPJ's Origin stint was ended.

Fittler seems obsessed with picking "bolters" out of nowhere. We saw it with Daniel Saifiti, and then his twin brother Jacob. Both punts ultimately paid off but Origins have been won for decades based on picking form players.

The general feeling was that Billy Slater outcoached Fittler in Game 1, which was ultimately the difference.

I'd argue it wasn't so much that Slater did anything special but more that Fittler actively hurt the chances of his side with a series of horror decisions.

His Game 2 squad selection again raised eyebrows as Stefano Utoikamanu was picked in a must-win game over a more experienced option.

Utoikamanu played 14 minutes.

He also chose to stick by Hudson Young, who was arguably the Blues' worst in the series-opener. Shockingly, he didn't even switch Cameron Murray to the starting side.

In fact not only did Murray not run on, as he should have, but he was not sighted at all in the first half of Origin 2.

That's right. Cameron Murray. One of the game's most destructive runners and tacklers. The NRL's quickest play the ball. Not sighted for a single second.

This despite the fact that Tom Trbojevic was removed from the game in the opening minutes.

Cam Murray, a player who has filled in at centre with great results multiple times was not the option to replace Trbojevic at centre.

Instead Fittler went for career number nine Damien Cook.

Cook tried his absolute backside off only to routinely have his pants pulled down. I actively feel bad for Cook, who cannot be blamed for anything.

He was absolutely rinsed by the man who is supposed to be looking out for him, his coach.

I saw a line of thinking that Cameron Murray wasn't thrust into the game early at centre as he wasn't 100% heading into the game.

If that was, in any way, true, then there's no way he should have been selected in the first place.

I maintain Matt Burton should have been picked for Origin 2 to fulfil the utility role that has been made so famous over the history of Origin. That looks smart in hindsight but it also follows the script of almost ever Origin in the past decade.

In this Origin series, if there was a bad decision to be made, Brad Fittler found it.

I made a joke that I believe he is a sleeper agent sent in to destroy NSW from the inside. It was very much in jest but the more I think about it, can anybody rule it out?

Brad Fittler has talked about the passion he has for the jersey and the state.

If he has any passion or respect left for the Blues he needs to step down from the role immediately ... and take Greg Alexander and Andrew Johns with him.