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Please don’t tell me that Ricky Stuart has instilled pride and passion back into the NSW Blues jumper. How many times did we hear the coach, the players, and even the biased media use that mind numbing word “passion”?
Who cares about passion?
The French have been passionate for hundreds of years but the only battle they have won was the French Revolution, and that was only because their opponent was also French.
To claim that Ricky Stuart has made the Blues more passionate than what Phil Gould or Craig Bellamy did is laughable, and to suggest that he is a better coach is just down right stupid.
Origin has been dominated and decided by champion players. It always has been from game one when Arthur Beetson stamped his greatness and it always will. It is that special arena for true champions to stand up and make the difference. Sometimes it is just a single play from an Alfie Langer or Wally Lewis, but history shows us that they have made the difference when it counts.
Phil Gould had Andrew Johns, Laurie Daley and Brad Fittler. They won because they were champions, not because they were passionate.
The last time the Blues won a series was in 2005 and it was coached by Ricky Stuart. He lost the first game as he did not select Andrew Johns, but when Joey returned for the last two games the Blues won. Johns was named man of the series.
Ricky Stuart’s Origin coaching record without Andrew Johns is four games for only one win. The Maroons have had champion halves Lockyer and Thurston and that has been their edge, not passion.
Craig Bellamy is a far superior coach to Stuart but he also was unable to find another “Joey”. Like Stuart he also is a “control freak” and wanted to ensure he had his own players in the team.
The ARL did not recognise that selecting the best 17 is a completely different skill to coaching and Bellamy and Stuart have been able to dictate who and what they wanted to the demise of the greater good – winning the game.
We can learn from the AFL who have a separate match selection committee that is filled with a diverse group of skill and experience and often the coach does not get the team he wants.
It is not possible long term for any coach to watch every game several times and be able to single handily produce the best team as they simply do not have the time involved to analyse all the variables.
Ricky Stuart’s ego told him to select Anthony Minichiello in the crucial fullback position to counter Billy Slater. He could have had Hayne or Brett Stewart who has scored 59 tries from his last 60 games.
It is hard to imagine how any professional would have made this monumental error in judgement or how Luke Lewis, Anthony Watmough and Hayne were omitted from Game I.
Hooker Mick Ennis had a shocker in the opening match and with no Gidley available to start the talented Robbie Farah surely would not have handed the game over to Lockyer’s men so meekly.
The fact is Stuart was at a disadvantage with Pearce and Soward as they were up against Thurston and Lockyer and they will never reach their dizzy heights.
The Blues do not have a champion 6 or 7 and the closest is the troubled Todd Carney, who is still trying to work out what he wants out of life. Hopefully it is to help the Blues win a series.
National coach Tim Sheens told me last year that the contribution that Darren Lockyer brings to a team is “immense”. With him gone out of Camp Maroon, now the door in ajar for Josh Dugan to claim the fullback spot and Kurt Gidley to start as the hooker and play for 80 minutes like Cam Smith does.
All the Blues have to do now is to find another Joey.
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