“How good you want to be?” Laurie Daley asked.
“Do you want to be remembered? Win a series up there in a decider and you’ll be remembered for all time.”
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Game 2
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That was the powerful message from the NSW Blues coach after his team crumbled in Game 2 on Wednesday night as the Queensland Maroons forced a series decider at Suncorp Stadium.
Daley was surprisingly upbeat despite the 44-24 loss to the Maroons, with the Blues coach both “disappointed” but also “excited” about the “wonderful challenge” that awaits his playing group.
“I’m disappointed, but also excited about the fact that everyone loves going to Suncorp,” Daley said.
“Everyone loves going up there to play, so it’s a great opportunity for us to play our best football in the series.”
Of course, all NSW fans would have hoped it did not even get to that point in the first place.
But the Blues were their own worst enemy on Wednesday night, making 12 errors compared to just four from the Maroons, who had eight more linebreaks than NSW and ran for nearly 300 more metres.
“Queensland were very good but we just missed the mark, so we’ve got to have a real hard look at ourselves and come up with the answers, which I’m sure we will,” Daley added.
“(It is a) good opportunity for us to go up to Queensland and try and win a series.”
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So, will Daley make changes as he desperately tries to win back the shield?
“We’ll look at the game and see where we’re at,” he cryptically replied.
“You just analyse everything, don’t you?”
“I think Origins are all different. I think there were some good things out of the first half that we did,” Daley later added when asked about any potential changes.
“We just weren’t consistent enough with what we did throughout the 80 minutes. Queensland stuck to what they do well. Once momentum happens in this game, things turn pretty quickly.
“So while we’re disappointed, you don’t lose trust or faith in guys. You know what they’re capable of doing. You’ve just got to be able to do it.”
One change plenty of Blues fans were calling for before Game 2 was to start Cameron Murray and the South Sydney lock forward made an immediate impact before also setting up Mitch Barnett’s late consolation try.
Meanwhile, Daley may also have to reconsider the make-up of his bench after hooker Apisai Koroisau failed to get on the field while Addin Fonua-Blake and Ethan Strange got just 10 and 17 minutes respectively.
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Daley said it was a “difficult” balancing act only made harder by the Kotoni Staggs sin bin.
“Sometimes with the way that the bench and the momentum happens and what you need at certain stages, it’s quite difficult when you’ve got certain players,” he said.
“Two are always going to miss out. When we went down to 12, we had to take Addin back off because we felt like we needed more speed, rather than having a big guy there.
“So, there’s plenty of things you think about in the coach’s box. I think for us we just missed the mark in a few areas that we need to be better at.”
Five-eighth Mitchell Moses also got an early mark, although Daley said there were no concerns for the Eels star’s hamstring.
“We just wanted to look after him. There’s nothing to gain by having him out there… he’s all good,” Daley said.
The Blues coach was quick to defend both Moses and halves partner Nathan Cleary from any criticism in the wake of the loss, crediting Queensland for winning the ruck and dominating the game as a result.
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“They had their moments. But again, when you’re under the pump and when you have no field position and your ruck is getting pounded, we weren’t as good on the ground as what Queensland were,” Daley said.
“Their ruck seemed a lot faster. Our’s seemed a lot slower. So they did a really good job there on us. We’ve just made it hard on ourselves. There’s some things there that you identify straight away that you know you can fix. But then we’ll have a look a little bit deeper.”
If there was one positive for the Blues it was the fact they reversed the trend of slow starts, although it will mean little given the way they fell apart in the second half.
Captain Isaah Yeo told reporters the team put an “emphasis” on the start to the game earlier in the week, but echoed Daley’s sentiments in declaring the Blues simply “missed the mark”.
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“I thought we went in really confident at halftime,” Yeo said.
“All the conversations were positive. We just missed the mark.
“I think it was our second kick chase, Selwyn makes a line break and we were just putting ourselves under pressure too much because we had to do a bit more work in the first half because of the pressure we’re putting ourselves under.
“Ultimately they weren’t shooting themselves in the foot like we were and you can feel they were growing in confidence as the game went on. You could sort of feel that they were starting to win the field position battle in that second half.
“You saw that line speed change a little bit, then off the back of that we got bogged down for little periods there. It’s disappointing.
“We’re really proud of how we started the match and little periods in that half. But ultimately everything’s worth double in the second half and we just missed the mark.”
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