“When you’re successful,” said Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics, “things have a momentum. And at a certain point you can’t really tell whether you’ve created the momentum or it’s created you.”
The NSW Blues won’t care if momentum has made them or they’ve created it. All they’ll care about now is capitalising upon it and beating their arch-enemies, Queensland Maroons. Heading into game two of the storied State of Origin super series, the Blues are riding a wave of favouritism. They are 1-nil up in the best-of-three series and dominated their opponents in game one. But they’ve been here and been hurt before.
For any “momentum”, whatever you and Ms Lennox take that to mean, apparently favouring the Blues is only a thing in between fixtures, if it is even a thing at all. It’s momentum of the hive-mind. It’s not something that will matter in the actual match. Come kick-off (20 minutes after scheduled kick-off) game two of the 2018 State of Origin series will be decided by 13 rum-gargling Queenslanders and 13 baby Blues. And pre-match momentum won’t mean a lick of spit.
If anything, Queensland, in the tried-and-true Way of Queensland, will be eating that stuff up, sucking it into their pores, using it as proof positive that the bastards down south have written them off because they hate us. Queensland may have won 12 of the last 13 series, but they love “Sydney media” writing them off. They suck in that stuff like the barefooted Blues sucking in nutrients of Coogee Oval earth.
But surely, for Queensland, the era of dominance is over.
From a cold-eyed look at the numbers, NSW has a good-sized edge. The Blues are faster, younger and run for more metres. They dominated the middle of game one. David Klemmer, Paul Vaughan, Reagan Campbell-Gillard filled the legislated yardage between themselves at speed. RCG is out; 31-year-old Matt Prior has bolted in. Debutant Damien Cook was assured and dangerous last start, and will be intangibly better for the run.
Queensland competed, hard, and with much niggle, and will so again. These are not friendlies. Queensland has an advantage in experience, in Origin games played. But only by dint of two champions – Billy Slater and Greg Inglis – who’ve played 60 games between them.
The competitiveness of this fixture could come down to one thing: the 35-year-old hamstring of B.Slater. The champion has spent the period between matches nursing, icing, manoeuvring his injured muscle, doing what must be done, as he always has. He’s played in pain before. But will he be at his best? Time – and there’s little left – will tell.
Blues captain Boyd Cordner says his team has learned the lesson of last year when, 1-nil up in the series, they looked to protect a lead in game two rather than continuing to do what got them there: playing footy. And you sense they know it, these Blues, that they feel their time has come.
You sense that coach Fittler has had no truck with players who aren’t buying in, who think their work here is done. For it’s far from done. NSW has won game one five times in the last 12 years and lost four of them, including last year. For captain Cordner, those memories are fresh.
In game one Maroons captain Greg Inglis tried to rouse his men with a series of hard charges and full-frontal defence. He’s a leader who takes leadership seriously. And he says Sunday night’s game is the biggest Origin he’ll ever play. Which is rather a big statement from the ornament.
Sunday night? It’s not that strange a night to play Origin, according to statistician David Middleton of League Information Services. Origin has been played every night of the week bar Saturday.
In the 1980s 23 of the 27 matches were played on Tuesday nights. Game four of 1987 was on a Thursday night, in Los Angeles. The entire series in 1998 was played on Friday nights. The entire series in 2001 was played on Sunday nights. Ten Origins have been played on a Monday, including game one of 1994, Mark Coyne’s “miracle”.
Queensland won’t need a miracle to win game two on Sunday night. They’ll call on their ghosts and their inner underdog, and do their best to set Cameron Munster, Val Holmes and their champion fullback free. Twenty-year-old Kalyn Ponga is set to fill the breach should Slater’s hamstring leave him relatively ineffective, and if ever a pup looked suited to Origin, it’s Ponga who was tipped to play Origin while playing junior rugby at a grammar school.
Yet surely it’s the Blues’ time. Queensland has shed their tactical masters – Cam Smith, Johnathan Thurston, Cooper Cronk. Michael Morgan’s injured. Their forward pack is missing a physical big bopper or two. The Blues have several, and monstered the Maroons last start. They’re fit, and in form. And if they don’t bottle it like last year, surely there time is now.
