State of Origin 2016: NSW Blues have the wrong culture - and the wrong leaders
Date: June 23, 2016 - 9:33AM
by Phil Gould
League Columnist
New South Wales tried hard. They always try hard. No one can ever question their physical efforts.
However, they were beaten again, not so much by a better team, but by players who just know more about winning.
For the majority of last night's State of Origin encounter, the Blues were going much better than Queensland. You could feel them getting on top of their opponents on several occasions throughout the contest.
The problem is that every time NSW looked to be gaining the upper hand, they either shot themselves in the foot with a silly error, or they had the momentum taken away from them by one of the great generals in the Queensland team.
I don't know how many times over the past decade Blues fans have walked away from a losing Origin match and bemoaned to themselves, "If only we had Johnathan Thurston playing for us, we would've won that game".
Again last night, when the game was in the balance, the leadership of Thurston, Cooper Cronk and Cameron Smith produced the big plays for the big moments that ultimately determined the final result.
They own this Queensland team. They own its culture, its direction, its character and its results.
Mind you, they couldn't win these games on their own. Origin is a team game. They have a loyal, committed and courageous team of foot-soldiers around them. It's a tenacious, never-say-die band of brothers who give selflessly to the common cause.
They all have simple jobs and they execute their roles to the best of their ability regardless of pain, injury, fatigue or setback.
The key here though is that these workers trust their leaders implicitly. They never question a command, second-guess an instruction, argue a decision or seek to be more important within the team than the role they have been given.
The generals, Thurston, Cronk and Smith, appreciate their workers. They love them. They treat them with respect. They act as though they are forever grateful for the body of pain-staking work they produce.
However, when the big moments come around, it's the generals who take on the responsibility of giving their team direction, purpose and creativity.
They know where and how they can accumulate their points.
They dissect the NSW defensive line almost at will, whenever it's needed.
They point their teammates in the right direction and the workers respond with everything they have to give.
In game one of this series they soon worked out they only needed six points to win. Last night they produced three brilliant second half tries, all when NSW were starting to get too close on the scoreboard.
If Queensland needed two more tries to win, somehow I think they would've got them.
The fact that these leaders are also the playmakers within this team makes Queensland the championship team it has become.
NSW cannot match Queensland in this regard. For far too long now, NSW has been inhibited by a situation where its playmakers unfortunately play second fiddle to others within the team. The balance of power has been with the wrong people.
As a result, over the past decade, the Blues have not been able to generate a long-standing playmaker group that can consistently win them matches at this elite level.
Leadership has been in the wrong hands. It's been the wrong style of leadership, thus producing the wrong kind of culture. I'm not saying this after the event. I've been saying it consistently for the past six or seven series.
Don't get me wrong, I admire their output of work. They are tenacious workers in their own right. But thats what they are; just workers. They should never be the team leaders.
NSW had Queensland beaten on three or four occasions last night. They just couldn't reflect that on the scoreboard.
The emerging Blues players are almost ready to beat this Queensland team. They just need time in the middle and some self belief. They need to be given ownership of the campaign. Unfortunately this team will never realise it's true potential until it removes the players who have shown us year after year, that they can't beat Queensland.
The Blues were very brave. They can be proud of their efforts. However, Origin football is only about the final result. That's all they engrave on the winner's shield; the team that won.
Again it was Queensland.
They were too good on the night.
