I’ve been reviewing a lot of discussion over the past week about this year’s Origin.
Podcasts, radio shows, TV shows, articles and plenty of social media. While there has been plenty of things said about the victorious Maroons the focus of a lot of the coverage has been on the Blues. And oh my it has not been positive.
From those who have felt let down by the NSW side to those who are swearing revenge on the coaches to those questioning the integrity of some of the players’ mothers, the anger has been expressed passionately.
To begin with I was somewhere on that same spectrum of anger and frustration. After Game I how was it possible that they threw it all away? How did Andrew Fifita change from a wrecking ball into a ship wreck? How is it possible for Mitchell Pearce to lose yet another Origin Series? But then I thought some more about it all, and I came to this realisation that brought me peace.
NSW actually did nothing wrong. Or rather, it didn’t matter if NSW did everything right – they were never, ever going to win in the first place.
This Maroons dynasty is going to go down in history as one of, if not the greatest rugby league side in the history of the game.
The names that have consistently populated the team sheet are some of the greats of this era if not of any era of rugby league and they are all playing at the same time in one team. How on earth could anyone expect any team to beat them?
There was talk about how this year’s Maroons side was going to be vulnerable with some new faces donning the XXXX shirt. Surely this would weaken the all conquering Queenslanders and the Blues could take the first of many series wins. Hahahahaha! As if!
For every new face there was a hugely experienced and talented Queenslander standing shoulder to shoulder with them. And of those experienced players half of them are regularly in the ‘future immortal’ debate.
Looking at the past two games there were the same big names delivering excellence – Cam Smith, Coops Cronk, John Thurston, Bill Slater. Who in their right mind could possibly think that over three games a side with those guys in it was likely to lose?
(AAP Image/Darren England)
They don’t lose. They are some of the most successful players in the sport. They have won individual and team accolades time after time.
They have orchestrated absolute demolitions of their opposition together and fought back from almost certain defeat to produce miracle wins together. But somehow Messers Klemmer, Ferguson and Maloney were going to beat them? Seriously?
Don’t get me wrong – the NSW players are very talented and I’ve got a lot of time for most of them. I think they have successful NRL careers ahead of them and many of them will do some good things in the game. But none of them are as good as the best in the Maroons side.
With the series lost, the question is not “how on earth can the Blues beat the Maroons?” The question is “Why on earth would anyone expect the Blues to beat the Maroons?”
If we stop deluding ourselves and look honestly at the situation we’ll see that the truth is that we should not expect NSW to win at all. This Maroons side are simply better. Would you expect the Knights to beat the Storm in a three match series?
Would you expect England to beat the Kangaroos in a three match series? Of course not. So why on earth does our rational mind take a holiday when it comes to Origin.
In order to beat the Maroons, the NSW team need to…. wait. Wait until this core group of Smith, Cronk, Slater, Thurston and (to a lesser extent) Inglis are all gone. Yes of course the rest of the Maroons side is strong but the rest of them are not immortals.
So once this bunch have retired from Origin it will be a far fairer fight and we’ll see the Blues get their name back on the shield.
Changing coaches might help a bit. Blooding some new halves might get a few NSW fans excited about what could happen. But at the end of the day none of this actually matters. As long as the Maroons have this same three or four core group of players in the side, the Blues will just have to make do with losing.
Those calling for Laurie Daley’s resignation – feel free if it makes you feel better but it won’t change anything. Those of you demanding for Mitchell Pearce to hang his head in shame – I feel your pain but do you really believe he could ever compete with Cronk et al over a series?
There is a certain peace in acknowledging that you can’t really change what’s happening and when you stop struggling against the inevitable you’ll find you have more energy for other things. Like getting angry at your club.
So go in peace noble Blues fan and rug up warm for a couple more years of this long, hard winter.
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