Rating Freddy After 3 Seasons-

[Reflector]

Hard to judge... NSW have had a clearly stronger team than QLD during his tenure. This was a pretty bad series for NSW to lose. Daley was a shit house coach but at least he can say he was against QLD teams that had Smith, Thurston, Cronk etc... If NSW lose again in 2021 then Freddy has to go.

That Qld team who won the 2014 had Gallen and Bird playing surrogate halves, and Qld lost Cronk before Game 1 was halfway through. DCE's barb at Gallen during his victory speech was ironic, considering he was the halfback in the only Qld team who couldn't win the series off a Paul Gallen team.

I maintain that if Qld didn't have Munster calling the shots in their halves, NSW win Game 3 and instead we're talking about how even a patchy NSW team could still win the series. If you want to see a bad series for NSW to lose, go back and watch the 2017 series. Whatever you think of Freddy's selections, he would've instilled mentality in that NSW side to finish the job...

 

[Tommy Smith]

Dropping a 3x Premiership winning CMM Medalist in Luke Keary after one game where the entire team was ordinary is the dumbest call in history.

As a full body of work, Keary remains NSW best half or 5/8 by a long way.

If the Blues halves were Keary/Wighton from the start then NSW win games 1 & 2 imo.

 

[mongoose]

I maintain that if Qld didn't have Munster calling the shots in their halves, NSW win Game 3 and instead we're talking about how even a patchy NSW team could still win the series. If you want to see a bad series for NSW to lose, go back and watch the 2017 series. Whatever you think of Freddy's selections, he would've instilled mentality in that NSW side to finish the job...

lol no

Munster had a great game but QLD beat NSW up in the forwards. QLD had no right to win a single game this year. If NSW won game 3 the discussion would have been "narrow escape"...

 

[big hit!]

Hard to judge... NSW have had a clearly stronger team than QLD during his tenure. This was a pretty bad series for NSW to lose. Daley was a shit house coach but at least he can say he was against QLD teams that had Smith, Thurston, Cronk etc... If NSW lose again in 2021 then Freddy has to go.

What if Munster, Grant, & Holmes are talked about in the same breath in 5 years time?

 

[The_Frog]

lol no

Munster had a great game but QLD beat NSW up in the forwards. QLD had no right to win a single game this year. If NSW won game 3 the discussion would have been "narrow escape"...

They had a narrow escape last year. Your luck has to run out sometime.

 

[Reflector]

They had a narrow escape last year. Your luck has to run out sometime.

A narrow escape with Tedesco scoring the knockout punch...and then leaving the field after 20 minutes this time around.

 

[Howwy]

... If you want to see a bad series for NSW to lose, go back and watch the 2017 series. Whatever you think of Freddy's selections, he would've instilled mentality in that NSW side to finish the job...

It's all Ancient History now, but I still wonder if the last quarter of Game II that year was an opportunity missed by the NSW captain (Cordner) as much as anything else: after all he was the one on the field and could see first-hand that NSW were drifting, but - this not being Yankee-ball - he can't exactly call a timeout. When Gagai scored the first of his 2 tries, there was now a minute, maybe two, to get them together, pick his words and make 'em count, principally in the form of firing some rockets up the backsides of his front row (Fifita/Woods) to straighten up and hit the line like they meant it. Yet I don't recall seeing much of anything going in the NSW in-goal ...

 

[The_Frog]

A narrow escape with Tedesco scoring the knockout punch...and then leaving the field after 20 minutes this time around.

Tedesco scored the winning try, sure enough, by backing up like a good fullback should, but the try was created by a sublime Mitchell Pearce ball to a perfectly positioned Blake Ferguson. Pearce's finest moment in 19 Origin games.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

The same thing that happened at the roosters under Hitler is happening at NSW.

He was good for the initial period, sparking life and something a bit different to the team. After the initial success it is a steep decline and NSW are best served moving in another direction.

its the Eddie Jones effect.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

Tedesco scored the winning try, sure enough, by backing up like a good fullback should, but the try was created by a sublime Mitchell Pearce ball to a perfectly positioned Blake Ferguson. Pearce's finest moment in 19 Origin games.

Pearce’s play there is lost on many.

 

[gordsy]

Pearce’s play there is lost on many.

The play was a success due to Mybe falling on his arse

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

A few things for mine...

Bennett is a full time coach, and one of the best of all time.

Hes not coaching Qld this year until it’s after Souths season is done, and Walters had been shoehorned into the Broncos. But without him I’ve got no doubt Qld wouldn’t have won..

Fittler has (before being the blues coach) been a coach for 2 years, years ago, at the roosters. A successful first year, then they fell off a cliff in the 2nd.

Before Fittler, we had Daley. Who’d never coached first grade.

Before him, we had Stuart - who had coached first grade, didn’t win the series but for the first time in ages - we had mongrel in us. Against the best sides state of origin had produced. We looked more likely under him than ever since 2006.

Why do we really need “part-time” coaches?

Truth is, we DONT need “part time” coaches. We especially don’t need Part time coaches with little/no experience coaching first grade.

We lost this series, more than Qld won it. I’m adament any team under Fittler before 2018 would get mauled. It’s been a false dawn for his coaching abilities in 2018/19 as Qld has lost all their superstars.

Get rid of him. And bring back Ricky Stuart. He’s not one of the best of all time like Bennett but he’s the best NSW has got.

F—k finger painting, we need a big injection of C—t in our team. He’s the guy to do it.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

The play was a success due to Mybe falling on his arse

Without Pearces pass, we go to extra time and potentially lose the (another) unlosable series. Kept Fittler in a job. So maybe we can also blame Pearce for this seasons fat turd from NSW.

 

[Reflector]

A few things for mine...

Bennett is a full time coach, and one of the best of all time.

Hes not coaching Qld this year until it’s after Souths season is done, and Walters had been shoehorned into the Broncos. But without him I’ve got no doubt Qld wouldn’t have won..

Fittler has (before being the blues coach) been a coach for 2 years, years ago, at the roosters. A successful first year, then they fell off a cliff in the 2nd.

Before Fittler, we had Daley. Who’d never coached first grade.

Before him, we had Stuart - who had coached first grade, didn’t win the series but for the first time in ages - we had mongrel in us. Against the best sides state of origin had produced. We looked more likely under him than ever since 2006.

Why do we really need “part-time” coaches?

Truth is, we DONT need “part time” coaches. We especially don’t need Part time coaches with little/no experience coaching first grade.

We lost this series, more than Qld won it. I’m adament any team under Fittler before 2018 would get mauled. It’s been a false dawn for his coaching abilities in 2018/19 as Qld has lost all their superstars.

Get rid of him. And bring back Ricky Stuart. He’s not one of the best of all time like Bennett but he’s the best NSW has got.

F—k finger painting, we need a big injection of C—t in our team. He’s the guy to do it.

Bennett is a full-time coach and (in a regular season) wouldn't have had the Qld job this year. It would've been Walters, so you can write that up as a unique set of circumstances falling in Qld's favour, similar to how the girl in the yellow dress and Cronk getting injured after 9 minutes fell in the Blues favour in 2014.

Before Ricky Stuart, NSW had Graham Murray and Craig Bellamy- both full-time NRL coaches that'd been successful at NRL level. But here's the kicker- both coaches had pivotal players to their NRL teams lining up for Qld. You really think they'd 100% not give a shit about hurting one of their Qld NRL teams' stars and harpooning their finals chances in an Origin game?

I'm adamant that under Freddy's watch, NSW would've finished the job in 2017, making last series a 3-peat and maybe a 4-peat this season if COVID didn't see Wayne replace Kevvie. The problem with having a full-time NRL coach in a normal Origin series is that their attention is split between Origin duties and their NRL team. That's why Qld stopped going with existing NRL coaches after they got rid of Hagan, and it's why NSW followed suit when they got Laurie Daley after Ricky stood down.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

Bennett is a full-time coach and (in a regular season) wouldn't have had the Qld job this year. It would've been Walters, so you can write that up as a unique set of circumstances falling in Qld's favour, similar to how the girl in the yellow dress and Cronk getting injured after 9 minutes fell in the Blues favour in 2014.

Before Ricky Stuart, NSW had Graham Murray and Craig Bellamy- both full-time NRL coaches that'd been successful at NRL level. But here's the kicker- both coaches had pivotal players to their NRL teams lining up for Qld. You really think they'd 100% not give a shit about hurting one of their Qld NRL teams' stars and harpooning their finals chances in an Origin game?

I'm adamant that under Freddy's watch, NSW would've finished the job in 2017, making last series a 3-peat and maybe a 4-peat this season if COVID didn't see Wayne replace Kevvie. The problem with having a full-time NRL coach in a normal Origin series is that their attention is split between Origin duties and their NRL team. That's why Qld stopped going with existing NRL coaches after they got rid of Hagan, and it's why NSW followed suit when they got Laurie Daley after Ricky stood down.

And I’m adamant any NSW coach before Fittler would have won the series in the last 2 years with the sides he had, and the sides he played against. And would have won this year where Fittler couldn’t. And Fittler would have got slaughtered with every team before 2018.

He was a great player, one of the greats. But he’s a media personality now, not a coach. He was sacked from that years ago.

We don’t play part-time players, so why have a part time coach. If that part-time coach had significant (and successful) experience coaching at NRL level then I’d be swayed. Fittler has experience, years ago, and was swiftly sacked. So our best option is a bloke who coached years ago but was sacked... by the club he played for...

The Qld side this year is an absolute shadow of what it was 5 or 10 years ago, yet they still won. Why...

We got away with it last year after almost blowing it. This year we had our arses handed to us. Qld got rid of their bloke who’d never been the head coach in first grade. Smart move.

And while not purely Fittler, in past years we’ve found the need to get 35 players together weeks before state of origin for a “blues camp”... what’s the effing point of that apart from giving the opposition the chance to rightly take the piss. It’s “everyone gets a medal day”...

Pick the best team and that’s it. If you make it, you’ve earned it. If you don’t, keep working hard and you might make it in the future. Having 15 other hangers-on who’ll never play barring injury is pure wank. Just like selecting the Dally M medal winner, and runner up, out of position...

You can have the finger painter, I’ll have someone else..

 

[Welsh RL & RU watcher]

From here the XVII I'd go with next yr would be :-

Tedesco, Tupou, Gutherson, Treboiovik, Addo-Carr, Wighton, Cleary, Saifiti, Cook, Haas, Crichton, Sims, Frizell. Int-McInnes, Paulo, Campbell-Gillard, Finucane

 

[St Hope]

And I’m adamant any NSW coach before Fittler would have won the series in the last 2 years with the sides he had, and the sides he played against. And would have won this year where Fittler couldn’t. And Fittler would have got slaughtered with every team before 2018.

He was a great player, one of the greats. But he’s a media personality now, not a coach. He was sacked from that years ago.

We don’t play part-time players, so why have a part time coach. If that part-time coach had significant (and successful) experience coaching at NRL level then I’d be swayed. Fittler has experience, years ago, and was swiftly sacked. So our best option is a bloke who coached years ago but was sacked... by the club he played for...

The Qld side this year is an absolute shadow of what it was 5 or 10 years ago, yet they still won. Why...

We got away with it last year after almost blowing it. This year we had our arses handed to us. Qld got rid of their bloke who’d never been the head coach in first grade. Smart move.

And while not purely Fittler, in past years we’ve found the need to get 35 players together weeks before state of origin for a “blues camp”... what’s the effing point of that apart from giving the opposition the chance to rightly take the piss. It’s “everyone gets a medal day”...

Pick the best team and that’s it. If you make it, you’ve earned it. If you don’t, keep working hard and you might make it in the future. Having 15 other hangers-on who’ll never play barring injury is pure wank. Just like selecting the Dally M medal winner, and runner up, out of position...

You can have the finger painter, I’ll have someone else..

Agree with you on coach he was a novelty in first series but I think Daley would have got us over the line against the rebuilding Toads but since then QLD could of had 2 series wins not 1 if not for one of NSW's greatest moments.
I will admit to being a Cody Walker fan so I think he should have been retained after last year's game but in saying that so should have Keary after this years first we were flogged in the forwards on these occasions so halves impact was always going to be minimul and if players playing out of position can be judged fairly (I don't think they can) then our centres offered us little .
As a Dragons fan we have been down the underperforming track for a few years now so my thoughts are this we get the best coach we can that to me is Bellamy . I know he's been tried before but now is different he is not coaching against legends of the game don't let the moment pass NSW because it gets harder the longer we wait.

 

[The_Frog]

Too much pick the best 17 and find positions for them. Although Queensland did this as well.

Except Freddie picked the best 17 from last year. This year's best 17 would have had more than 2 Riffers in it.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

No mirrors at Brad's place then??

Step 1 - get a mirror..

State of Origin 2020: Brad Fittler regret, NSW vs QLD, Blues vs Maroons | Fox Sports

‘Finding the people to win’: Brad Fittler reveals his biggest regret over crushing Origin defeat

Serious question though - does Fittler have a contract for next year/beyond?

 

[The_Frog]

Freddy will appreciate Bennett's gesture in standing down for 2021.