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Can NSW fans handle an Origin ‘rebuild’?

8th May, 2018
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Brad Fittler has the chance to re-shape the Blues. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Expert
8th May, 2018
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Out there in NRL clubland, there’s been many a time when a once-glorious playing list and coaching staff have gone stale and in need of a good renovation.

So begins the ‘rebuild’, hated yet tolerated by most rugby league fans.

Generally, it’s understood that a few backward steps sometimes need to be taken before a club can rediscover that long-term consistency and success.

There’s a standard template for these times: incoming coaches and the current administrators lay groundwork with the fans, frowning and looking concerned at meetings and press conferences as they talk about the leaner times to come, that players may need to be moved to free up cash, and that a new gameplan will ‘take time to embed in the playing group’.

Unless your head office have great third-party contacts, at some stage in a coaching career this will be the way. And it’s OK – as we’ve seen with Newcastle, fans will cop a trip to the cellar if they are brought on board early and can track gradual improvement on the field over the course of a season.

But State of Origin is different.

It’s the three toughest, most intense contests of the year, asking the hardest questions of a player’s physical and mental stamina.

Supporting the teams are two cohorts of uncompromising fans who demand maximum effort, maximum intensity and a series win.

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At the risk of sounding like Phil Gould, Origin demands you to perform, or to have an asterisk next to your name that will be difficult to shake for the remainder of your career.

And into all this comes rookie Blues coach Brad Fittler. He knows what State of Origin is all about – he played his first Origin game at 18 years of age and went on to feature in 31 of them.

Brad Fittler NSW coach

Photo by Matt King/Getty Images

Justified or not, one of the biggest criticisms levelled at recently departed Blues coach Laurie Daley was that he stuck with his squad through thick and thin.

New South Wales didn’t change their line-up from Game 1 to 3 in 2017. Daley trusted his squad had strongly established combinations, understanding of one another and a sense of predictability.

Only problem was, that predictability was obvious to everyone watching – especially those in Maroon jerseys on the other side of the field.

So it’s easy to jump on and give Laurie a whack but remember, in Game 2 last year the Blues were literally three minutes away from a series win before their own handling errors, Dane Gagai and Johnathan Thurston’s right-to-left curve did them in.

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Game 3’s subsequent washout (and let’s not forget losing 11 out of the last 12 series) has given Fittler a mandate not many other Blues coaches have had – permission to cast aside reputations and create his own team.

Fittler has been upfront about his intentions, too. He wants the best young players in his team to build into a dynasty rivalling Queensland’s.

Right now, we’re smack bang in the hot spot for the traditional mass speculation about how NSW and Queensland will set up for the opener. And why not – with club form and the timing of injuries, there’s a real chance that Fittler could run out almost a completely new backline in Melbourne.

In the mix of names being seriously considered for the work we’ve got Tom Trbojevic, Nick Cotric, Josh Addo-Carr, Euan Aitken, James Roberts and Latrell Mitchell.

Josh Addo-Carr Melbourne Storm NRL Rugby League 2017 Finals tall

Josh Addo-Carr of the Storm (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Again – that’s just some of the options available for the backline.

In previous years, these players would maybe get a week with the squad in a development role, before sitting in the stands and watching those who had ‘done it before’ get the job ahead of them, sometimes with woeful club form – or no club form at all.

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If Fittler is true to his word, those days are over.

NSW 2018 needs a vastly different look, drawing upon possibly the most exciting roll call of young Blue talent in a generation. But new blood doesn’t guarantee new results and, as previously mentioned, Origin is a whole different universe.

Fittler’s excitement for the role and the possibilities he sees is almost infectious. Youthful exuberance from the squad and Fittler’s obvious enthusiasm for his state puts a completely new angle on this year’s series.

But like all good rebuilds, a ‘brand new’ squad needs time to build the structures, combinations and understanding that only comes from playing together. Even the Origin veterans who make the cut will need to reset themselves to fit the brand new world.

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Queensland have lost two of their biggest movers in Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk, but there’s still Cam Munster, Greg Inglis, Will Chambers, Billy Slater… I could go on.

The Maroons have rebuilt on the quiet, making the most of a wining situation to bring players like Munster through. NSW haven’t had that luxury.

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So there’s excitement on the horizon, but still a lot of work to be done. Fittler has walked into a house with walls, a roof and not much else – but he’s got some great tools to turn the place over.

The only catch is that while Fittler shapes his team into the dynasty he wants them to be, there may well be a couple more years of Maroon hands holding the State of Origin shield.

Can you live with the growing pains, Blues fans?

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