Another season, another example of New South Wales chopping and changing their existing line-up in the hope to end the Maroons’ dominance.
This year Mitchell Pearce is the scapegoat, the major example of New South Wales attempt to clean up team culture within their structure.
But is this seemingly hard-line stance from Blues coach Laurie Daley the right approach?
Looking at past examples of successful and unsuccessful teams in all sports it is certainly not. However, it is not necessarily the fault of Daley, but a culture that has been bred by the hierarchy of New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL), and has crept into the entire team structure over the past eight years.
It will continue unless this culture is removed.
It is a toxic, toxic culture that has bred the fear of failure into players who are being treated like immature children, not too dissimilar to the Australian cricket team when Mickey Arthur was the coach.
While in that case Arthur was seemingly controlling the whole charade, including the infamous ‘homework’ gate scandal, for the Blues the blame can be laid at the feet of the higher levels of the NSWRL hierarchy.
The coaches, whether it be Craig Bellamy, Ricky Stuart or Laurie Daley, don’t even know it.
This leads to poor leadership from everyone involved in the Origin set-up. It also leads to childish traits such as gloating when a team wins or throwing the toys out of the pram when they lose.
The successful teams, the teams who are at the top of their sport for a long period of time, do not show any of these traits.
The Queensland team, led by coach Mal Meninga and the captaincy of Darren Lockyer and then Cameron Smith, have created a strong culture. It is a culture that is relaxed, but one that is geared to getting the absolute best out of every individual within the team structure.
However, the most important part of this team structure is the way Mal Meninga treats his players. He treats them as adults, as equals, as real people. This mateship allows everyone to work well together in pushing the boundaries in the quest for success.
It allows them to enjoy success when they win, but also provides a platform for them to fix problems together as a group after a rare defeat. This quest for success has seen them win eight-straight Origin series.
This model is similar to the Australian cricket team under the coaching of Darren Lehmann.
So, by Laurie Daley towing what appears to be the ‘company’ line, he is continuing to add to toxic and poisonous culture that has engulfed the New South Wales rugby league team, thus strangling the life out of this mentally-wrecked group of players.
Things must change quickly, otherwise Queensland will win a remarkable ninth-straight Origin series.
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