Finally it’s here! Tonight we settle in to watch Game 1 of rugby league’s age-old battle between believer-ship and homeopathy.
Yes, State of Origin preparations sure ain’t what they used to be.
It used to be so simple – New South Wales would spend weeks on the cans, punching on with each other, abusing their opposition in team meetings and falling off horses, while Queensland furiously snapped at anyone who dared to call them the favourites.
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Things are slightly different now.
NSW are doing yoga, wandering around barefoot after training to soak up the Earth’s vitality and taking lessons from a ‘breathing enhancement expert’, which apparently reduces nervousness and keeps a player’s mind focused.
We were introduced to the Brad Fittler methods last year and they’re successful because the Blues won. If they lose, they’ll be back to being kooky and weird.
But even Fittler’s grass walking, breath-holding, sat-nam humming, vegan teetotaling has been pushed aside by what’s happening in the Queensland camp.
Brad Fittler (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Kevin Walters has been front and centre telling anyone who’ll listen that his mob have the goods and should get the job done.
Walters’ first presser was a beauty, ripping out a stack of meaty lines about how his squad was primed to dominate.
“We’re ready. This is war,” he said.
“This Queensland team is going to be so prepared for this match. We’re at home and are going to put on a performance everyone can be proud of. It’s on.”
He continued, “I expect to win Game 1 for the Maroons. With the team we’ve picked, I expect to win Game 1.”
I love it. Sadly, it’s incredibly rare in Australian sport for someone to come out and say they’re confident and strong and believe in themselves and their abilities.
But this is Kevvy Walters, the same man who had to fight back tears when he announced in 2017 year that he’d dropped Billy Slater. The same Kevin Walters who gave journos less than nothing when he ascended to the coaching role in 2016, so vehemently insisting his team full of future Immortals were the underdog.
Apparently this new, positive belief is the work of self-anointed ‘coach whisperer’ Bradley John Stubbs, who has worked in some form or another with coaches and staff at the Roosters, South Sydney, the Wallabies, Sydney FC and in English rugby.
Whether Stubbs’ input is directly responsible for the success of his clients is for the universe to decide, but he’s definitely changed how Walters presents himself. Queensland are even fining players for even mentioning their opponent by name.
Like I said, I love that Walters has come out on the front foot. More sportspeople should talk themselves and their teams up.
But I’m not sold that we’re seeing the authentic Walters, and I don’t know if the players are either. Maybe it’s all just for show and behind closed doors it’s business as usual.
Queensland State of Origin coach Kevin Walters. (AAP Image/Jim Morton)
While a lot has changed in the lead up to Origin, some things are reliably consistent.
We’re entering the ‘off Broadway’ period of the NRL season, where teams lose their best players and a bunch of journeymen and young blokes who aren’t ready for first grade are lumped with the responsibility of keeping a club’s season alive.
Add to that the representative players backing up, sometimes barely 48 hours after an Origin game, and a schedule so littered with byes it’s tough to get a clear picture of how things are shaping up.
Around this time of year, many experts who’d usually cry about games needing to ‘flow’ don’t seem all that bothered by sticking a metal bar into the spokes of the game.
It has a huge effect on the competition itself. In 2017, Parramatta finished in the top four, ahead of Cronulla by two points, which was helped massively by a win in Melbourne against a Storm side missing six rep players.
Canberra will play Wests Tigers at Bankwest Stadium on Friday night, with Josh Papalii, Nick Cotric and Jack Wighton all expected to back up from Origin. They have to as well, because the Raiders’ injury list is testing their depth so much I had to knock back an invitation to fly up and pull on the boots.
Souths have already lost a game they would have won against the Eels after being without Damien Cook, Cody Walker, Cam Murray and Dane Gagai. That’s enough to stuff any supercoach around. The Bunnies also have a Friday night game too against top-four competitors Newcastle, who will need to hope Kalyn Ponga gets through tonight unscathed.
Kalyn Ponga (C) of the Maroons sings the national anthem (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
The best teams have enough depth in their lists to stumble through the Origin period and gradually work players back in before moving into finals mode. If you’re a team like St George Illawarra, who don’t have that luxury, you get what happened in 2018 when Paul McGregor couldn’t afford to rest his representative players or his club was going to miss the finals.
Whether it’s bad scheduling luck or just the price of doing business, the main point is that this doesn’t need to happen.
The solution seems simple, but it’s too scary for most: shut the club games down for three weeks.
Play three standalone Origin games on three consecutive weekends in mid June, get some international games going as well, then kick the NRL competition back into gear.
This is also a great way to kill off a few rounds of the regular season to shorten things up. No one will notice if you take three weeks out when Origin is on (and a couple from the front and back too, but that’s just me).
As my colleague Stu McLennan noted on Tuesday, the NRL is much more than just New South Welshmen and Queenslanders now. It’s becoming more and more unsustainable to keep club games going through this period.
But enough negativity. Breathe in deep with me and release those bad vibes with a biiig exhale. It’s time to enjoy what should be a belter of a series. You better believe it!
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