Maroons need to forget about spirit and start playing smart to bring down Blues juggernaut

For all the talk over many, many years, the famous Queensland Maroons spirit is something of a mirage.

That’s not to say it doesn’t exist, but it’s all-conquering power is talked up when the Maroons win in State of Origin, when in actual fact, they have often overcome the odds by being smarter and more pragmatic than NSW.

In the first two series of Billy Slater’s coaching reign, he was able to harness Queensland into a powerful collective force by combining smart game plans with the ability to get everyone on the same page, doing their roles, nothing more, nothing less.

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The opposite seemed to be in effect at Suncorp Stadium three weeks ago, when the Maroons looked disjointed and dispirited as they quickly realised that the Blues were too powerful and potent for them over the course of 80 minutes.

Tino Fa’asuamaleaui tried to unsettle the Blues early by pushing the envelope with the referee, but two quick penalties put the Maroons on the back foot, and the Blues converted the extra possession and field position into early points and never looked back.

Daly Cherry-Evans did not seem to have control of the team in his usual way when they would take a hit-up or two on one side of the field to open up an attacking raid in space on the other edge.

And Harry Grant had easily his worst performance at hooker as he tried to solve the Maroons’ overall team troubles with individual gambles.

That only led to the Maroons surrendering even more possession in the first half, and even though the scoreline was not an unassailable 14-2 lead to the Blues at half-time, the damage was done because Queensland had nowhere near enough petrol in the tank to mount a sustained comeback in the second term.

Origin games are never won in the first 10-20 minutes, but they can be lost.

It was a similar scenario in games two and three last year when the Maroons took ill-advised options in what used to be known as the traditional softening up period, and the Blues made them pay.

Last year it was Mitchell Moses cashing in on the Queensland errors. This time around he had Nathan Cleary by his side, and when a team has that amount of footy IQ on their team, they only need the slightest invitation to convert a minor error from the opposition into a major problem for them.

For the Maroons to be able to take down the Blues juggernaut at Optus Stadium on Wednesday night, new halfback Tom Dearden can’t afford to take a back seat to the star-studded trio who make up the rest of the Maroons’ spine in Grant, new captain Cameron Munster and fullback Kalyn Ponga.

The tip sheet that will form Laurie Daley’s Origin II blueprint handed to every player has to contain the phrase: don’t fall for Dearden’s show-and-go in large, bold capital letters.

He loves nothing more than to feign a pass to his support players, duck his head and accelerate off the mark through distracted defenders, particularly in the attacking red zone.

His performances at Origin and Test level have shown that he is an elite playmaker in the NRL and Grant, Munster and Ponga need to show faith in him that he can do the job rather than overplaying their hand.

Grant is at his best when he is occasionally going solo out of dummy half, for the most part spiralling long passes from the ruck to create space for his playmakers.

Munster exemplifies the classical difference between a five-eighth and a halfback in that he is a game-breaker at second receiver but if he tries to shoulder too much of the playmaking burden ahead of Dearden then he will not be playing to his strengths.

And Ponga is the opposite of that for Queensland – his involvement can be impactful when he gets his hands on the ball early in attack, not just from sweeping around the back to link with centres and wingers.

The bookmakers have historically made the Maroons underdogs when on paper they were probably, at worst, an even money bet, if not favourites.

For the most part, when they have registered what was perceived as an upset or relying on their ethereal Maroons spirit, it was more often than not the case that they had played smarter in the big moments, or NSW had shot themselves in the foot with poor options.

There were several occasions within their 2006-13 dynasty run when the Blues were found to be tactically wanting or the Maroons took the most sensible route to victory to get the better of their flashier and more-fancied rivals.

Plenty has been said over the years over Queensland having a much smaller talent pool to choose their team, which is an undeniable fact, but when it comes time for kick-off, the talent deficit when you’re talking about roughly the top 34 players in the NRL is never that large.

Even this time around, it appears NSW have a sizeable advantage on reputation, but just like in a sport like cricket, where India possess a population more than 50 times the size of Australia, what matters is the players on the field, not the disparity in the number of people in one geographical area compared to another.

The Blues have wisely stuck with a winning combination apart from injured duo Mitchell Barnett and Mitchell Moses being replaced by Stefano Utoikamanu and Jarome Luai.

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Winning will not necessarily prove Daley can coach after he oversaw four out of five series losses in his first stint as NSW mentor, but it would at least help restore the reputation of one of the best and most passionate players to have represented the state at Origin level.

Queensland will be walking the finest of lines at Optus Stadium as they try to play smart while also disrupting the Blues.

They have achieved the balancing act before and it can be done again, but if their players try to solve team-wide issues with individual rolls of the dice, they will be waiting at least another year before they get their hands back on the shield.

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