What now for Fittler and NSW after State of Origin failure?

June 22, 2023 10:11 am.by Wayne Heming

NSW Blues coach Brad Fittler — Brad Fittler’s days as NSW coach could be done after Queensland wrapped up the State of Origin title at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday.

Where to now for NSW after their comprehensive defeat in the game two of the 2023 State of Origin series on Wednesday night?

Back-to-back series losses, back-to-back embarrassing defeats, the first 2-0 series loss since 2016.

It all points to autopsies, reviews and big changes, especially if Queensland make it a 3-0 clean sweep in game three in Sydney.

Even if NSW somehow find a way to save some face — which seems highly unlikely given the rise of this young, Billy Slater-coached Maroon juggernaut — Brad Fittler’s tenure as NSW coach looks over.

It could even be a case of ‘see you later’ captain and coach with NSW fullback James Tedesco solid but again falling short of threatening or pressuring Queensland’s scrambling defence.

Fittler might have thought NSW played well and were in the game, but they weren’t — they weren’t even in the Milton postcode.

“I don’t think we were that far out of the game and we got beat by four or five tries,” he said post-match, acknowledging Queensland were better on the night.

That’s not how it looked as Queensland crossed for six tries (a couple of lucky ones) to one and produced a magnificent defensive effort — the highlight being skipper Daly Cherry-Evans’ spectacular cover tackle on try-bound Blues centre Stephen Crichton which Slater later described as a pivotal moment in the game.

Origin is about big moments and there were none bigger than the 34-year-old Cherry-Evans chopping down Crichton in full flight.

Losing any player in the opening minutes of an Origin is bad news.

But when it is a game-breaker of the calibre of Tom Trbojevic (pectoral injury), and you’ve already lost another gun, Latrell Mitchell, it’s hard to recover.

“It had a huge impact,” said Fittler, who came in for plenty of criticism for using Damien Cook in the centres when he had other back-row options — including Cook’s South Sydney teammate, Cam Murray.

But that doesn’t take away from the fact that Queensland are building towards another period of Origin dominance similar to the Mal Meninga-coached golden era when the Maroons strung together a record eight series wins between 2006 and 2013.

This is a young Queensland side with a coach who after five Origin games has already won two series and, if he wants, can coach them for the next decade.

Dynamic fullback Reece Walsh turns 21 the week after Origin III in Sydney next month.

Wingers Xavier Coates (22), Selwyn Cobbo (21), Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow (22) and Murray Taulagi (24) have years of representative football ahead of them.
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p front, Queensland has got some young brutes like captain-in-waiting Patrick Carrigan (25), his Broncos teammate Tom Flegler (23), David Fifita (23), Reuben Cotter (24), Jeremiah Nanai (20) and Harry Grant (25) who conservatively have another 20 or more Origin games in them.

So, what options do a broken NSW have against Queensland’s coaching royalty of Slater, Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston, Josh Hannay and a few support staff extras like Allan Langer, Nate Myles and Cooper Cronk.

They’ve been comprehensively beaten, on and off the field, since Slater arrived on the scene in 2022 with no coaching experience.

Fittler did his best to brush aside questions about his job, but the noise will only get louder.

He pointed out there was still another game to play in this year’s series, but the reality is the Sydney Origin at Accor Stadium on July 12 could well be his swansong.

He wouldn’t entertain questions about team selections or how he has used his bench in the two games so far.

Several names have been tossed around to replace Fittler, including passionate Canberra coach Ricky Stuart, who has been in the Origin arena before as a coach and player, immortal Andrew Johns or his brother Matthew, or even former Sharks premiership player Michael Ennis.

Some of Fittler’s Origin selection calls have been openly questioned, including why he picked Nicho Hynes for game one, barely used him and then overlooked the Dally M Player of the Year for game two when he had to replace injured halfback Nathan Cleary.

Meanwhile, Queensland’s Walsh and Blues five-eighth Jarome Luai, who were both sent off in a crazy final minute of mayhem for head-butting each other, and sin-binned NSW winger Josh Addo-Carr were all charged by the NRL Judiciary last night.

All three were found guilty and fined a percentage of their match fee.

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