You can’t say New South Wales coach Laurie Daley didn’t know what to expect. Though he may not be aware of writer William Goldman’s classic blunders to avoid, like never get involved in a land war in Asia, and never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line, he most certainly knew that you should never go to Suncorp for an Origin decider and expect anything but misery. NSW’s last win in a Suncorp decider was, after all, way back in 2005, and that was a rare enough event in itself. As such, Daley pointed out a few days ago, “We have got to be more focused than we have ever been, we have got to be hungrier than we have ever been because that is what it is going to take to win up there.”
As we know now, what with the image of NSW’s eviscerated carcass strewn across the Suncorp turf fresh in our minds, the Blues looked neither focused nor hungry on Wednesday night. Indeed, as Mal Meninga’s brilliant Maroons set about re-writing the record books in front of a record Suncorp crowd – a crowd which greeted NSW’s entrance onto the field with the passion a tabloid columnist musters when caught in traffic caused by Ride Your Bike To Work Day – NSW looked erratic and lethargic (and often plain stupid). They resembled a team that had either burnt itself out with nervous energy before kick-off, or one that was so intimidated by the hostile venue, and the prowess of their opponents, that it forget how to play.
And by half-time, at which point NSW were down 22-2, it appeared that – and the evidence is the 30 additional points Queensland piled on in the second half— they no longer wanted to play. Tackles they should have made were missed, and their frustration and embarrassment at their impotence was evident in a few cheap shots, like James Tamou’s swinging arm on Jacob Lillyman and Trent Merrin’s upending tackle on man-of-the-series Corey Parker, who may be greying behind the ears but seemingly has more between them than the entire NSW pack put together.
The stats for the evening explain the 52-6 scoreline, a record Origin margin. Queensland scored eight tries to a lucky one (and a sublime Johnathan Thurston landed nine goals from nine attempts, and could have done so blind-folded so in-the-zone was he) on the back of an incredible 64% of possession. Queensland completed 37 or 42 sets (88%) to NSW’s 17 from 25 (68%). Queensland made just 181 tackles to NSW’s 319 and, tellingly, missed just nine tackles to NSW’s 26.
Significantly, for this is a game in which momentum is crucial, Queensland also won the penalties by the massive margin of 12-5. NSW will feel chagrined by that last stat, and only once in their past dozen visits to Suncorp have they won more penalties than the Maroons, but most of the penalties against them last night were no-brainers. Under duress, NSW simply lost all sense of discipline.
What these stats don’t explain is why NSW were so overwhelmed, why they were incapable, particularly early on, of matching Queensland’s intensity, and an autopsy will need to be held to find the answers. It hardly needs to be said – though you can never say it enough for Meninga’s liking – that this Queensland team, ageing though it is, is a version of the greatest Origin team of all time. Those names: Smith, Cronk, Thurston, Inglis (and Slater, though he didn’t play last night). They’re the Beatles. The Rolling Stones. The Beat Generation. The Renaissance artists in cleats. They’re key components in a team with passion, a team with immense skill, and a team so practiced at their art that when they rise to the occasion, as they almost always do, it seems like instinct, rather than the consequence of hard work, belief and motivation.
But for all that, the gap between the two sides is not the chasm it was last night. It’s easy to rewrite history this morning but it’s no illusion; NSW have been creeping up on an ageing Queensland for the best part of the past four series. The Blues lost deciders in 2012 and 2013 by just one and two points respectively. Last year they won the first two games to claim the Origin shield for the first time since 2005, and this year they perhaps should have won Game I in Sydney before coming from behind to win game 2 in Melbourne. While through this period question marks have endured over many of the Blues’ personnel, such as Trent Hodkinson, Mitchell Pearce and Will Hopoate (and these question marks are now writ in 100 point and highlighted in red), the Blues were rightly seen as a real chance to win last night at Suncorp and bring the curtain down on the Maroons’ unprecedented era of success.
That they didn’t, spectacularly so, points not just to Queensland’s skill, a left-side attack that’s sharp enough to split hairs, and the underestimated ability of Meninga to motivate his team despite all the gold that spills from the Maroons’ war chest, but the failure of Daley and his team to harness their best when it mattered most.
“Geez, I didn’t see that coming,” Daley said after the slaughter. “We were never in it. It came down to possession. When you don’t feel in control, you lose your way at times. We have taken a lot of steps forwards over the last couple of years, tonight we took a few steps backwards. That wasn’t us tonight… I’m shocked it ended up like that.”
Queensland will be shocked too, but in an altogether different way. They may be ageing, they may be nearing the end of the greatest era in Origin history, but as NSW now know they’re intent on raging, raging, against the dying of the light.
