Rugby league can be a funny game and it can also hurt like hell. In State of Origin, a match is won and lost throughout the eighty minutes – smaller battles of physicality and tactical maneuvering.

Game II on Wednesday night was no different and again it was the Maroons who triumphed to take an unassailable 2-0 series lead.

Go back to the opening at Suncorp Stadium – long before the intercepts and errors.

The Maroons get a penalty deep inside the Blues half and halfback Johnathan Thurston steps up to slot the penalty goal. Not long after the Blues are pressing inside enemy territory when they kick their penalty and then another to lead 4-2.

At this stage the Blues were on top and winning the ruck with quick play-the-balls and the second phase play we were demanding after Game I. Queensland, the champion team they are, continue to chip away and before long they had their opportunity to attack. Then they received another penalty and a gift two points. This is where the two teams differ mentally. The Blues would have taken another two points but the Queenslanders took the quick tap and peppered the sky blue try line.

There’s a myth that Queensland has more “Origin spirit” than the Blues. That they and they alone truly know what playing for your state means.

What a load of crap.

The fact is the Blues are a dumb football team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ALYgaeMEw

Sure it helps that this is the greatest rugby league team in the history of the sport but it doesn’t excuse the Blues and coach Laurie Daley for being mediocre. It doesn’t excuse the drop balls when the Maroons are snaffling the same opportunities. It doesn’t excuse the bad reads defensively that gifts Queensland’s wingers so many soft tries. It doesn’t excuse the attacking kicks that go dead when Cooper Cronk and Thurston are getting repeat sets for their side. And it most certainly doesn’t excuse showing loyalty to certain players when those same players have been making the same mistakes for years.

In Game I at ANZ Stadium, NSW had a chance to cease the advantage. At home in Sydney, the Blues had their chance but the game plan was all wrong. They played sideways instead of through the middle and they refused to force the issue offensively. Offloads were few and far between and it seemed like they were more than happy to go set-for-set with the champions and somehow pull it out of the fire in the last minute. This is Queensland we’re talking about. You don’t go twelve rounds with Muhammad Ali and expect to win on points – you try and knock him out. That is on Daley’s head.

Game II on Wednesday is on the players but Daley had a part to play too.

It’s time we stopped complaining Cameron Smith has the referee’s ear or Queensland are just too good so who cares. For more than ten years we’ve been singing the praises of this amazing football team but we’re also in denial about how poor we’ve been.

“I believe we’re getting closer. I think the players believe we’re getting closer,” Daley said post-match.

“At some point, we’ll have to draw a line in the sand and say, effort is good but we can’t keep reverting back to that.

“We’ve got to convert and that’s the challenge for us.”

The line in the sand was drawn in 1980 but it seems we’ve all forgotten that.

Bob Fulton is an Immortal and one of the great rugby league minds but the fact he still remains as a selector of this team is astounding.

Coach Daley is one of the greatest Blues players we’ve ever seen but it feels like Daley is more worried about not losing than wanting to win like he did in his playing days.

It’s time the NSWRL approached the great Phil Gould with a blank cheque and got him back on board. No New South Welshman understands Origin better than Gould who is also our most successful coach. Call him coach, selector, general manager, whatever you want. Gould needs to be there.

You can hear it in him when he speaks. Nobody gets it like Gus.

In Game II of the 2014 series at ANZ Stadium, the Blues bombarded Queensland’s line looking for the try that would give them the lead and the series after winning Game I. Go back and listen to Gould as the Blues, at their stupid best, found new ways not to create points. Eventually the ball went to halfback Trent Hodkinson who beat a tired defender to score. The Blues should have won that game by ten.

Gould gets it.

Obviously no one else does.

@woodward_curtis

Feature image Source: David Kapernick / News Limited – Youtube: VAC 2016