Tough 'Tooves' Can Cure NSW's Blues (2017)

Last Sunday, Fox Sports Lara Pitt spoke directly to Phil Gould amidst rumours and speculation that he could be stepping in, as part of a unique trio with Brad Fittler and Andrew Johns, to coach the New South Wales Origin side in 2018.

The most honest and correct statement he made regarding Laurie Daley’s sacking was, “Laurie’s not a professional coach. This is not what he does for a living.”

And that right there hits at 50 percent of the Blues’ issues. He isn’t a professional coach. That is exactly what NSW needs.

This is exactly the same issue that Fittler and Johns have. They may do some assistant coaching on the side – and ‘Freddy’ did coach the Roosters with mixed results a decade ago – but they aren’t full-time professional coaches of football teams.

Fittler and Johns are also very similar to Daley in another aspect. They were all magnificent players, undoubtedly the best of their generation in the world. But they are all laidback characters.

With stories emerging such as Josh Dugan and Blake Ferguson having some drinks before engaging in some less-than-professional interior designing of a hotel room prior to Origin II, coupled with the duo’s pub session and Andrew Fifita reportedly forcing Daley to backflip on his decision to have him start from the bench prior to the decider shows that the players did not respect Daley enough.

It’s not because they didn’t think he deserved it. It’s because Daley, like Fittler and Johns, comes across as one of the boys. There’s nothing wrong with that in some team environments. But it clearly doesn’t work for the Blues.

However, there is one coach who oozes passion and professionalism, is a full-time coach, played plenty of Origin footy and is looking for a gig.

Geoff Toovey.

Why hasn’t ‘Tooves’ been put forward as a candidate? The intense Manly club legend and former coach spent 2017 coaching the financial basketcase that is the Bradford Bulls, whose relegation to the third-tier competition would render Toovey too expensive to stay on. He wants to be back in Sydney and ideally at an NRL club.

But while he is yet to be picked up by any club, why not line him up to coach the Blues? 

Furthermore, let him have full control of the side. He doesn’t need helpers like Daley did.

The decision to move Bob Fulton on for this series in favour of Peter Sterling would make the role more enticing for Toovey.

Toovey has bled for the Blues. He demands respect from his players and he is a smart tactician. He has all the qualities required to be an Origin coach.

 
And he will provide them a huge injection of the one thing they need the most: passion.

****This article appeared on Commentary Box Sports website on September 1, 2017****

Forcing a Pearce peg into an Origin hole (2017)

Another year and another State of Origin series falls the way of the Maroons after such a promising start from the Blues.

But this year surely is the one that hurts the most for New South Wales.

They played a Queensland side that has begun its transition from the dynasty to the next young crop of talent. They were without Darius Boyd, Billy Slater and Johnathan Thurston at times and both Greg Inglis and Matt Scott failed to play a part in any of the three games.

Queensland stuck with the as much of the team from 2016 in Game 1 and were belted. They rang in the changes for Game 2 and snuck home. Two more debutants lined up in the decider and Queensland, without Thurston, Boyd, Scott and Inglis, strolled to an easy win over the Blues.

The pre-series talk for New South Wales was about whether Mitch Pearce should be recalled, given his woeful form in Origin. He had been in brilliant form for the Roosters thus far in the season so it seemed a given he be selected.

Then came the assumptions by former players and commentators that the reason New South Wales lost with Pearce in the side was because Farah was too dominant and overcalled Pearce.

So Farah was not picked. Instead the selectors went with a new option, the talented Nathan Peats.

What transpired though was Peats became nothing more than a tackling, stand and pass merchant, denied the opportunity to show any creativity at all. Across all 3 of his Origin games, he ran the ball 6 times, had 0 line breaks, 0 try assists, 0 offloads and 0 line break assists.

All of this was done so that Pearce could have full control of the team and be comfortable to play at his best.

Pearce produced 0 line breaks, 0 try assists and 0 line break assists. He continued to kick the ball directly to Queensland’s back three. Every time.

He ran the same play, over and over again, slowly and poorly.

He regularly botched small plays with his team mate from the Roosters Boyd Cordner.

Many will say that it is hard for a halfback to play at their peak when their forwards are struggling. And to a degree it’s true. But if you had a hooker who was either prepared, or perhaps allowed, to make a few dummy half scoots to try and get the defence back pedalling, more often than once every half, that would help the halfback.

You can see in Cameron Smith’s stats across the 3 Origin games how vital it can be to have your rake running the ball. In Game 1 he made 3 runs for just 9 metres. In Game 3 he made 18 runs for 112 metres. Peats made around 30 metres in his first two games and a miserly 3 metres in Game 3.

Only one player in the Blues spine pulled their weight and it was Fullback James Tedesco, while James Maloney was passable at best. He made 3 of their 6 line breaks (Maloney made the other 3), 3 of their 5 try assists (Maloney had the other 2) and all 3 of their line break assists.

Also, stop picking fullbacks in the centres. Sure Hayne and Dugan have had some good games there, but they were defensively poor and more often than not, failed to get their wingers any decent opportunities, on the rare occasions that they did pass the ball.

Woods was largely useless, even in the opening game, Fifita was heavily targeted in the second and third games after a barnstorming Origin opener. Frizell’s NRL form didn’t carry over and he failed to have much impact while Jackson was great in Game 2, he seems to be lacking in attack.

But one thing that hasn’t changed is the style of play and the stubbornness to persist with a failed half. Coach Laurie Daley has been incessantly hammering the large square peg of Pearce into the small round hole of being an Origin quality halfback.

It’s time for Daley to go. It’s time for Mitchell Pearce to go. If neither happens soon, Queensland will have replaced the likes of Smith, Cronk, Thurston, Slater, Boyd, Scott and Inglis and will be embarking on yet another dynasty, while Laurie Daley continues hammering away trying to make a squad of 16 work around 1 player who simply isn’t good enough and doesn’t deserve the opportunity any more.

Solving the Blues #9 Conundrum (2017)

Since the morning after Origin 3 in 2016 it seems the media has been obsessing about who will be the hooker should be for the New South Wales side in 2017.

Robbie Farah is the incumbent rake, with plenty of statements at the start of the year from coach Laurie Daley that he’s inclined to stick with him. But naturally as the season has rolled on, plenty of others have put their hand up with strong claims of unseating Farah.

So with plenty of options on the table coupled with Daley softening his stance on Farah, what’s needed is some facts as opposed to the usual biased back and forth. This article is working entirely on statistical data obtained from the official NRL website and with a simple calculation based on ranking from best to worst in each field, I have been able to calculate who the most consistent and best candidate is to pull on the sky blue.

Naturally there will be arguments to be made that some statistical fields are more important than others, but the purpose of this exercise is to find the most complete and consistent player in all fields.

Added to the list of Blues candidates is Australian and Maroons hooker Cameron Smith, to show where the Blues options rank in comparison.

NSW Candidates

Robbie Farah (Souths and incumbent NSW Origin hooker)

Jayden Brailey (Cronulla)

Damian Cook (Souths)

Apisai Koroisau (Manly)

Michael Lichha (Canterbury)

Cameron McInnes (Souths)

Nathan Peats (Gold Coast)

Kaysa Pritchard (Parramatta)

Peter Wallace (Penrith)

Runs and metres

Cameron Smith averages 9 runs per game, which is vastly higher than all of the Blues. Cook and Koroisau both average 5.4, with Farah at 5.1. Naturally Smith has made more metres, averaging 57.4 per game, however Koroisau is not far behind, gaining 53.6 per game, which is impressive given he runs the ball considerably less. Michael Lichha has 4.4 runs for 48.9 metres per game, making him the only player averaging more than 10 metres per run. Metres per run is the only field where Cameron Smith is beaten by all the NSW Players.

Line and Tackle Breaks

Koroisau leads the field for line breaks, picking up 3 in his 10 games so far. McInnes has 2 from as many games. Smith, Lichaa, Farah and Peats have all yet to register a line break yet this year. Koroisau is also top of the class for tackle breaks, racking up 15 so far, one clear of McInnes and 6 in front of Smith.

Line Break and Try Assists

Despite playing just 4 games, Nathan Peats averages 0.75 Line break assists per game which is the best of the lot. Second is Smith and Farah, who both average 0.6 per game. Peats is also the best when it comes to try assists, averaging a neat 1 per game while Farah and McInnes are second with 0.5 per game. Smith comes next with 0.3.

Offloads

Cook is well clear of the field in this category, averaging 1.1 per game, while Farah, Pritchard and Wallace are all tied for second with 0.6 per game.

Defence

McInnes is the best tackler here, making more tackles and missing less than everybody else. He has made 437 and missed just 6, at a rate of 98.65%. Farah is next at 97.21% while Smith runs fourth at 96.21%

Discipline

Koroisau, Farah and Brailey are the least penalised players on average, giving away 0.4 penalties each per game. Smith averages 0.6. Ball handling is quite good amongst all, with everyone under 1 turnover per game. McInnes and Cook have had just 1 error each while Smith has had 5.

There are 12 fields all up and each field is converted to an average per game. The best in each field scores 1 point, second best gets 2 points etc. The player with the lowest total across all twelve ranks is deemed the best.

There is just three points difference between the top 5 players, which shows just how close this is.

Cameron Smith came out on top with 48 points.

Apisai Koroisau and Cameron McInnes were equal second on 49 points.

Robbie Farah and Damien Cook were next best, both tied on 51 points.

Michael Lichaa had 61, Kaysa Pritchard 73, Jayden Brailey and Peter Wallace were tied on 77 and Nathan Peats had 81 points

So a countback is required.

McInnes has ranked first in two fields and never ranked last, while Koroisau ranked first in three fields and last twice. McInnes therefore is more consistent and would thus be ranked as the Number 1 hooker for NSW.

An Open Letter To Laurie Daley (2016)

Dear Laurie,

With the first State of Origin game of 2016 just completed, I feel compelled to write to you directly, with a few pertinent questions, suggestions and one or two criticisms. Well, to be honest Laurie, the questions and suggestions will be thinly-veiled criticisms.

Firstly, Dylan Walker. Why? Surely, surely, you knew he provides no utility value and his form certainly did not warrant selection in this side. This was proven by you choosing to introduce him into the game with less than 10 minutes remaining. Please don’t do this again.

Secondly, what are you doing having a dig at the referees? The Blues had a glut of great field position, especially in the second half, but the non-existent game-plans in the attacking zone, that we have now become accustomed to since you took over in 2013, prevented us from scoring a single point in the last 54 minutes of the game.

You do realise that Queensland have only been held to one try in an Origin match eight times in their last 49 games? I pose that purely to ask why you thought scoring just two tries would be enough to win?

Thirdly, you opted for a more attacking outfit. We loved it! What we all forgot, while we were contemplating an end to the miserable, dour encounters you have been bludgeoning us with for a few years now, was that you lack the ability to create an offence at all – even with better attacking players. You do know that second-rowers and centres can provide a lot more than just tackling ability?

What is with the last-tackle options? For years we all just thought Mitchell Pearce was sh.… actually no, that’s a bad example. We thought the halves we kept picking were just not up to the task of Origin, but given that the personnel keeps changing and the same woes continue in the halves, it means the issue is elsewhere.

And let’s call a spade a bloody shovel: the issue is you. For a bloke who was a brilliant five-eighth at every level of the game, you have no idea as a coach.

Don’t feel bad, plenty of great playmakers share your trait: Wally Lewis, Tommy Raudonikis, Terry Lamb, Craig Coleman.

So I have a suggestion. Either start working on far better game-plans, utilising the attacking prowess at your disposal and actually take the Maroons on instead of your useless, ‘keep them at bay’ approach. You had one play all night and you showed your hand early and repeatedly. You are up against an experienced and skilful side; the Blues have to be vastly, far more vastly, better than that.

Time to get some backrowers who can create some second phase play with offloads, feed some good ball to the centres, let Reynolds and Maloney actually do something other than be the go-to men when a play shits itself after four tackles of one-out plodding up the guts. Have a varied kicking game. If you put up a bomb, have four or five blokes chasing and putting pressure on. Bombs are pointless if they are uncontested.

Either change everything about your approach as coach, or leave. Currently all you are doing is a favour to rugby union, by making rugby league look more boring. Please don’t do that anymore.

Finally, tell Bob Fulton to piss off. He was a great player and a great coach. But he is neither now and his selection ideas are bordering on Sheens-like for their pointlessness, stupidity and ineffectiveness.

Yours sincerely,

 
Blues fans everywhere

**This article appeared on the Commentary Box Sports website**