As he enters his fifth series as coach of New South Wales, one thing about Brad Fittler’s home term remains true: his Blues machine runs on vibrations.
This has always been the case for Fittler. One of his great strengths as a coach is his absolute belief in what he is doing and his willingness to roll the dice on the teams, to make a big swing. Brad Fittler will select the players Brad Fittler believes the Blues need, for better or worse, and live with the consequences.
That’s why Fittler set a record of 11 debutants in his first game at the helm in 2018 and that’s why he has the same winning percentage as any New South Wales coach. But that’s also why Josh Addo-Carr, one of the brightest stars of the Fittler era, will see Origin I from home.
Almost the entire New South Wales side has been bled under Fittler’s tenure. (AAP: Joel Carrett)
In selecting Daniel Tupou over the Canterbury winger, Fittler has delved into this classic swamp of origin: how much should previous performances count on a Blues jersey compared to the current form? When does the desire to take the headlines to the limit become a change for the sake of change?
The absence of Addo-Carr means only two players have appeared in every game Fittler has coached for New South Wales. The first is James Tedesco, who has become the dominant figure in the Fittler’s Blues field, first as a star player and now as a captain, and the other is the prostitute Damien Cook, who is entering his fifth series in the team but never did. he stopped looking over his shoulder.
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“Freddy chooses the form. That’s a big reason we had our chance in 2018, and you have to play good football when you step in, to give you the confidence you need in the series,” Cook said. .
“You only rent the shirt. You rent it every game. You return it and then, if you’re lucky, they pick you up again. After that first game, it was addictive, I wanted more, I wanted to do it for so long. I could, that means you have to improve, you have to be trainable, you have to keep learning and growing your game.I would like to think I do.
Cook has never missed a game of Origin while Fittler has been coaching. (Getty Images: Quinn Rooney)
“If you had told me after that first game that I would still be here all the time later, I wouldn’t have believed you, even after that first series.
“It was such a surreal moment, but after playing the first game, I wanted to keep playing more than anything. I knew I had to keep playing good football and keep improving, I couldn’t miss this opportunity.”
Cook, like Addo-Carr and another Fittler fan who this time lost the selection to Angus Crichton, had a chance at the Origin Arena due to Fittler’s willingness to take advantage of that opportunity.
New South Wales is now a team built on this image: Of the 22-man team named Monday, only Tedesco, Tupou and Tyson Frizell predate Fittler’s tenure as coach. If you can prove you’re good enough, the Blues will face you, that’s Brad Fittler’s guarantee.
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But this coin has another face. It means that no one’s place is really safe, and that anyone can enter or leave the frame at any time, depending on how they are playing, and Tupou is playing well to win the selection, at least better than Addo-Carr, though a much better way. next to the club.
The man from Tonga also has a career of origin to be proud of: he was almost the best player of the blues in his defeat in the 2020 series, with his work in yards a particular highlight, and is the most state long and the only one. survivor of the 2014 drought-breaking series. He has always made his state proud and given his consistency, he is likely to do so again.
That’s not to say Fittler is always right. For every Daniel Saifiti, who was a shocking selection in 2019 just to become one of the top leaders in the game, there is a Matt Prior, who played 33 minutes in his only appearance in Origin in previous and was never seen in the lead. level nine. Not all swings can be a hit, otherwise they are not swings at all.
Complicating matters is the fact that Addo-Carr, who has scored 10 tries in 12 Origin appearances to be just one behind Michael O’Connor and Jarryd Hayne in the all-time Blues standings, heard the touching his shoulder, but Jack Wighton, a five-eighth for trade and usually a utility for his condition, did not do so and was chosen in the center because, in Fittler’s words, he never let the team down while playing there. .
And that strays from Fittler’s usual philosophy of selecting the best team he can without worrying about Queensland. Tupou’s aerial dexterity seems to have played an important role in his selection because Queensland has two great wing-wing players Selwyn Cobbo and Xavier Coates. Wighton’s start, probably alongside the powerful but clumsy Brian To’o, is likely to be a similar attempt at countermovement.
He remembers the many defensive centers that New South Wales deployed over the years in an effort to shut down Greg Inglis, a practice that never really worked and only ended when Fittler took over and instead he chose to fight the Queensland firepower with some heavy artillery. your own.
In the end, there is no exact science on these things. Tough and fast selection rules only weigh down an Origin team.
Some headlines are more headlines than others, and nothing can change that, not even being one of the best scoring scorers in the state or being one of Fittler’s great success stories. Fittler is loyal to his men, but a coach must be as loyal to performance as he is to men who have done the work for him before.
Addo-Carr is almost certain to play Origin again, but not this time. As always, Fittler felt the vibrations and grabbed his swing. He has made his choices and will live and die with them.
Posted 4 hours, 4 hours ago, Monday, May 30, 2022 at 8:11 AM, updated 4 hours, 4 hours ago, Monday, May 30, 2022 at 8:13 AM