Origin 1 Review

Origin II is almost here, and as the countdown is on, let's take a look at how the first Origin went down, and what both teams need to do going forward.

How Storylines coming into the game played out

Coming into this game, all the media attention was on NSW - something QLD thrive on. We saw it in 2020, when the master, Wayne Bennett, took all the attention away from his team and straight into the NSW camp. What happened in game 1? The Maroons won 18-14. Fast forward two years later, and all the focus was once again on the Blues.

Questions in the lead up to the game were all directed at some of Brad Fittler’s controversial decisions, particularly starting Daniel Tupou over Addo-Carr, dropping Jake Trbojevic, starting Jack Wighton at centre, and having Stephen Crichton come off the bench. The more intense the discussions got, the more pressure it put on NSW, while Billy could watch his team train in peace. Come game day, these distractions seemed evident.

Whilst Jack Wighton and Daniel Tupou both went on to prove they deserved their spots, the experience of the Fox and Jurbo were missed. To start off with, it couldn’t be made more clear that Stephen Crichton just isn’t ready for the Origin arena just yet. His first involvement of the game was a tackle which was put on report after lifting Cameron Munster above the horizontal, before going on to make an error, as well as just 12 metres from his 28 minute stint.

In the forward's department, there was just as much debate in the selections. The player selected over Jake Trbojevic was Reagan Campbell-Gillard who, in playing front row, didn’t really have the impact NSW fans would have wanted. In 39 minutes, RCG made 22 tackles (0.56 per min) in a losing squad. When NSW won 50-6, Trbojevic put in a massive effort on defence, in a dominant attacking performance where you’d expect him to have made fewer tackles, he matched RCG’s effort, racking up 22 tackles in a 29 minute stint (0.77 per min). In game 3 last year, he made a whopping 54 tackles in a massive 80 minute effort. To further display the service missed from the Manly lock, Campbell-Gillard missed 3 tackles in those 39 minutes, while Jake Trobjevic has missed just 1 tackle in his last 242 minutes of Origin football, absolutely incredible.

How NSW can bounce back in Game 2

So what’s next for NSW? I would say that Fittler needs to drag the attention away from his side of camp, but that is just not viable after such a disappointing loss. Thankfully for them, they have the chance to recover at a neutral ground at Perth rather than a sold-out Suncorp stadium. Freddy needs to take this opportunity to let the boys play a style of footy they are used to. On Wednesday, the performance that they showed was un-New South Wales like, but even more so - it was un-Penrith like. In a team full of stars sitting first on the table, they looked lost. Cleary couldn’t get any good kicks away, Luai looked rushed, and Yeo couldn’t seem to find his teammates. They need to be more free-flowing, just like the Maroons were - exactly how Cameron Munster and DCE played, eyes up footy.

How QLD can expand on their performance for Game 2

On the other side of the coin, it is very similar. If QLD want to shut this year's series down early, they need to keep doing exactly what we saw tonight. While Cherry-Evans may have been steering the ship, he understood that to win, the ball needed to be in the hands of Cam Munster. This saw Munster make the most metres out of any Queenslander (191), through a line break and an amazing 8 tackle breaks which came alongside 2 one on one steals. It truly doesn’t matter who the Maroons have out/who they select, as long as the halfback understands who the key belongs to.

QLD love being the underdog, but truthfully, they just aren’t anymore, but who better to handle it than Billy Slater? Brad Fittler won’t be scared though, fortunately for NSW, they’ve been in this situation before with Freddy at the helm, down 1-0 and having to pull out two consecutive wins to gain the series. What a series we are in for.