It’s July fourth. The third game of State of Origin for 2012 is almost over. The Blues and Maroons are locked at 20 all with about 10 minutes to play. For Ricky Stuart, this is a hard time.
In the next 10 minutes, all of the planning and hard work he has put into being the NSW Origin coach over the last two years will either be worth every second…or just not good enough. He’s put everything he has into this. Everything.
The 75th minute ticks over. Queensland have the ball. From 40 metres out the Maroons can bring another attacking raid against the Blues…surely we can hang on and then try to win it ourselves. Surely.
But then Cooper Cronk takes control. He sets himself for a field goal the Blues haven’t seen coming…and nails it. There is time left on the clock for NSW to come back, but the Blues are shot.
They scramble to pick up the pieces but in the end it is too much. The psychological blow from Cronk has done its job. Queensland win their seventh straight series.
For Stuart it is a crushing blow. Not that he shows it. He gives the obligatory quotes to congratulate the Queenslanders, he shakes hands with those he ought to and showers his players with genuine praise.
He realises that the controversies of the series are now simply a footnote on the pages of the Origin history book. Those same pages will state what really matters in the end. NSW were defeated 2-1 just as they were the previous year.
But unlike last year, Stuart is no certainty of returning. He has a few more offers on the table than last year…the lure of coaching in the NRL may be too strong after this series.
Fast forward to today. The Parramatta Eels have signed Stuart to a lucrative three year deal and he has had to walk away from the NSW coaching job.
Just when things were looking brighter, Stuart abandons ship. Was the job too hard, or was the money too good? The answer is irrelevant, but this leaves us in a situation we’ve been in before.
The Queenslanders are already planning our demise in next year’s series and we have the “Help Wanted” sign out.
So far three legitimate choices have been put forward, as well as a ridiculous one. Trent Barrett, Brad Fittler, Laurie Daley and Phil Gould.
Gould has been our most successful coach in Origin, but he has been out of the coaching seat for a long time. And even though many are saying they’d rather see him as coach instead of listening to him commentating (he’s the best clairvoyant through hindsight ever) it wouldn’t work.
Gus might fancy himself as a motivational speaker but I’m not sure even he could motivate and convince himself to do the job. He has all kinds of dramas at the Panthers and his job with Channel Nine is the best job in the world.
Why put the pressures of Origin on top of those things? Look what happened to his hair when he took the Panthers job.
Brad Fittler and Laurie Daley have duelled it out the last couple of years as City and Country coach respectively. Some have said that this is akin to doing an apprenticeship for the NSWRL in order to take on the Origin coaching gig.
Hhmmm…it is one game a year that isn’t anywhere near as important as it used to be. For it to be used as a grounding for a three game series that is of a higher quality than Test rugby league and means a hell of a lot, I don’t think so.
Funnily enough, I think the man for the job is the bloke they call “Baz”. Trent Barrett may not have coached before but he has been Stuart’s right hand man through the last two years. He knows the systems in place, he knows the dynamic of the support staff already and he knows the players very well.
Mal Meninga has shown that a successful coaching career in the NRL isn’t needed to be successful in Origin. Simply because it isn’t the NRL, Origin is it’s own entity. Ask Craig Bellamy.
If the systems and support staff that Stuart has put together are the reason why NSW have gotten closer to victory, then give it another shot. Barrett isn’t NRL coaching material, but he doesn’t have to be with Origin.
With Barrett, the same systems can stay in place and you are effectively plugging Barrett into the space that Stuart was in. If you want, have Daley or Fittler doing what Barrett did for the last two years. Give them that experience. It would have to be better than the one game they get at present.
We lost by one point last series. Don’t reinvent the wheel because of a Cooper Cronk field goal. It wasn’t even that good of a kick…
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