Queensland has taken Game I of this year’s State of Origin series, and fans have been quick to point the finger at a variety of players. ‘Latrell had a shocker’, ‘Cody Walker’s defence was poor’, ‘Nathan Cleary can’t control an Origin game’. And while some of the criticism runs true, there’s only one person to blame for New South Wales’ loss - Brad Fittler.
Fittler has had the Blues’ fans won over as soon as the 2018 Origin series began. His relaxed and quirky demeanour towards the game, picking players based on form and not whether they’d be there before or not, and who could forget his barefoot walks to ‘soak up the minerals’.
Winning the series didn’t hurt either.
But on Wednesday night, Freddy had his first off night as a State of Origin coach. A host of baffling decisions from the head coach cost his side dearly, and has New South Wales down 0-1 to start the series.
The decision to player David Klemmer for 52 straight minutes, then to have him sat on the bench for the final half hour of the game is a ludicrous decision. The Newcastle prop is a man that inspires his teammates. As a Blues player, when the game is close and it’s the dying minutes, looking across to see the towering front-rower gives you confidence, it boosts you.
He was far and away the Blues’ best forward. But in hindsight, Fittler is going to regret his game management here. To put it simply, he should’ve played Klemmer for the opening 35 minutes, taken him off, then unleashed him around the 60-65th minute mark.
In Origin, or for any football game, you want your best players on the park at the end of a game, and New South Wales didn’t do that.
Tyson Frizell was extremely dominant on the right edge during the opening half hour of the contest. He was subbed off, but it wasn’t until the 70th minute when Fittler threw the tough-as-nails back-rower into the contest. Whether that was due to an interrupted lead up to the game for Tyson is yet to be seen.
However, the biggest error Fittler made was the decision to take Cody Walker off at around the 50th-minute mark. The Blues led 8-6 at the time.
Jack Wighton enters the game in his place, and throws the intercept that hands Queensland their first lead of the night. They never trailed again.
Walker is a ‘confidence player’. When he plays good football, his self-belief grows and he backs himself more and more. The bounce of the ball always goes your way when that’s your mentality.
Getting subbed off in your debut Origin as a five-eighth is shattering. Especially when your side is in the lead. All the confidence Walker has built up over the opening 11 games of the season would’ve just about vanished in that moment.
He was thrown back into the contest with 10 on the clock. He exited the field with his team in front 8-6, and when he returned to the field his side trailed 18-8. The South Sydney livewire did well to set up a try for Jake Trbojevic in the final minutes, but it was too little too late.
You can say Cody Walker didn’t play well enough. You can say Nathan Cleary didn’t have control over that game at all. You blame a lot of players, and you’d probably be right.
But it all comes back to Brad Fittler’s game management. He’ll learn from this, he’ll axe a few players. Tom Trbojevic will almost certainly replace Nick Cotric. He won’t play Klemmer for 52 straight minutes and he won’t bench his five-eighth.
But he must take responsibly for this loss. His bench management cost his team more than any individual players did. If the Blues are to win this series, then it’s up to Freddy to learn from his errors, and ensure the shield remains south of the border.
