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Brad Fittler is a noted devotee of the ‘team cohesion’ idea of building rep squads. One might consider him an ideologue in this area, given that not only has he kept doing it across multiple squad, he’s also done so in the face of it clearly not working.
Fittler’s initial plan for 2023 appeared to be getting the band back together from 2021 – particularly in the backline – before, after an injury to Latrell Mitchell, getting the 2022 Blues losers back on deck through the Panthers-lite that he served up in Adelaide for Game 1.
Now, with Nathan Cleary ruled out of the rest of the series, that won’t stand. He is the lynchpin of the side, the one player that forced the other bits into place.
If you’ve got Cleary and his most important teammate, Isaah Yeo, then the logic would dictate that you might as well pick Jarome Luai, given the dead heat between him and Nicho Hynes for the five eighth role.
Then, seen as there’s another dead heat for the 9 jumper, stick with the Panthers combination there too, with ex-Penrith rake Api Koroisau tasked with playing 80 minutes in the middle.
Without the boy wonder leading the team at halfback, all bets are off. What is the point of the others without the flow-on from Cleary?
If Fittler’s logic holds, he’ll still want the combinations there, and there’s a fairly obvious alternative set of teammates he can pick from: Souths.
He’s already got Latrell Mitchell, who we are assured will return to the centres for Game 2 in Brisbane.
He prefers the left, and Souths have the best left edge in the comp for years now, so it makes sense to play him there and move Stephen Crichton to the right, or even better, out of the team entirely to allow Tom Trbojevic to play.
Yes, Critta was good in Game 1, but no, he’s not a patch on Turbo as a threat and shouldn’t be in the team when Latrell and the Manly fullback are options.
Once you’ve got Latrell, then it’s time for his best mate to get a run inside him: Cody Walker.
Luai falls into the Crichton mould of not having been that bad in the first dig, but also not the best option for Game 2.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
It’s possible that he’s good in a standalone role, but we’re yet to see it: every time he’s taken the major duties without Nathan, it’s been as halfback, either while wearing the 7 for Samoa or while wearing the 6, but de facto doing that job for Penrith as the senior playmaker.
Walker, on the other hand, is a genuine 6 with real threat and a capability to produce moments of magic. He’s the most similar player NSW have to Cameron Munster, a genuine spark plug in attack with lots of aggression in defence and a penchant for the unexpected.
At 34, this would almost certainly be his last ride at rep level, but one suspects that his name is the last that the Queenslanders would want to see on the squad list for the Suncorp Stadium decider.
There’s few better combinations than Cody and Latrell, and if there is, it might well be Cody and Damien Cook. There was nothing between Cook and Koroisau for Game 1, but Fittler went with Api due to his Penrith connection.
It backfired, with the Tigers captain forced to play 80 – which he never does at club – in the toughest arena.
Cook almost always goes the distance at club, and should be brought into the squad regardless this time, but probably would offer more than Koroisau for 60 minutes with Api able to meaningfully influence from the bench. As a duo, they work.
The upside of that dynamic would be getting Walker to read Cook, and all the good that flows from that. Their synergy was in full effect this weekend, with a superb try for Cody off the back of knowing where Cook would go – with the added bonus of skinning Maroons middle Tino Fa’asuamaleaui in the process.
But wait, there’s more. The current set up has Yeo at lock and Cam Murray as a replacement middle or edge, but in truth, the roles might be better reversed. The Souths captain ostensibly plays a very similar role to Yeo as a ball-player, but in practice, the Bunnies go about it totally differently.
Murray is a lock who plays a vital role in attacking shape, but he’s not the decision maker, as Yeo is for the Panthers. Isaiah is calling numbers and directing traffic, with Luai relegated to one side, something that simply doesn’t happen at Souths.
Their chain of command is Walker and Lachlan Ilias, the halves, with Cook and Latrell more important in decision making than Murray.
This is far more likely to work at rep level, not least because only the Panthers have an Isaah Yeo, and thus only the Panthers play like this. For everyone else who is neither Souths nor Penrith, the Souths manner is easier to understand.
Cameron Murray of the Blues is tackled by Harry Grant and Ben Hunt of the Maroons during game one of the 2023 State of Origin series between the Queensland Maroons and New South Wales Blues at Adelaide Oval on May 31, 2023 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Image
Murray should be the big minute 13, with Yeo an option on the bench. The Panthers man is also more used to playing on an edge – he has nearly 100 games of NRL as a second row – and came into grade as a centre, so could cover outside backs if required.
Suddenly, you have a spine that is James Tedesco – going nowhere, for the this year at least – plus three Souths players, with Mitchell parked outside on the left edge.
One could throw another Bunny, Campbell Graham, onto that wing too, though that would be unfair on Josh Addo-Carr who, in fairness, looked great outside Latrell at the World Cup.
That leaves just one position to fill: halfback. Even his biggest fans would baulk as Ilias taking the role, but there is one big, terrifying proposition out there.
(Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
Imagine you’re one of the five Brisbane players lining up at Suncorp for Game 2, and you look up and see the man who has brought you from last to first in the table, the beating heart of the Broncos, in a NSW jersey.
It’s Adam Reynolds, and he completes the jigsaw. His partnership with Cody Walker was one of the best in the NRL over multiple years and would strike fear into the Queenslanders.
Getting the band back together wouldn’t get any better than that. Moreover, Reynolds has the most try assists of anyone NSW could pick in the halves other than Walker, with a level of kicking that nobody, not even Cleary, matches.
As a mental weapon, it is the best that Fittler has and completes his main ideological goal. The Bunnies of 2021 will ride again.
The big loser here might be Nicho Hynes, who has done nothing wrong and deserves a proper crack at the 7 jumper, but realistically, he’ll get plenty more opportunities and, in NSW lose, that will start in Game 3 this year.
But if the Blues want to rattle the Maroons, get the most out of their combinations and give themselves a chance up at Lang Park, then it’s the Souths connection that can do it.
Make it happen, Freddy.