Fittler refuses to commit to same 17 for Origin II
Brad Fittler deflected questions over whether he will stick solid with the same Blues side for State of Origin II after some of his contentious selections fell short in the opener on Wednesday night.
Tevita Pangai jnr and Hudson Young undid some of their good work with silly errors, Josh Addo-Carr looked short of match fitness, and a call will have to be made on the concussed Tom Trbojevic, who won’t play again before the next team is selected. Latrell Mitchell is also expected to recover from a calf complaint, giving Fittler another selection quandary after his side was outplayed when the game was on the line.
“It’s a fair way away,” Fittler said when asked if the same 17 players will get to atone in the rematch in Queensland on June 21.
“Realistically, Turbo’s out for 11 days. So he got an HIA, I think a few blokes came off injured.
“So we’ll see what happens in a couple of weeks, we’ll go from there.”
Tyson Frizell appeared to cross for a legitimate try in his first game back for the Blues, only for officials to rule he was brought down short of the line.
NSW come to terms with another Origin match that got away.Credit: Getty
“I’m the coach of the team that didn’t win it, so I thought it was a try,” Fittler said.
Skipper James Tedesco added: “It could have gone either way.
“I reckon if it went up for a try, they probably can’t overturn it, but it went up no try, they never overturn it.”
Despite a plethora of Panthers, there appeared little cohesion among the Blues.
“It didn’t look that smooth and we got to the front, got a restart and then from there it just went downhill,” Fittler said.
“I thought in the last 10 minutes we didn’t handle it very well at all, especially when they were down to 12 and I’ll go back and look at how that all happened.”
Another talking point was Nicho Hynes. The Dally M medallist didn’t come onto the field until the final 12 minutes, a forced change to replace Trbojevic. Hooker Api Koroisau played the entire contest at dummy half.
“There was always the option at hooker, but I thought Api was doing a good job there and having someone versatile there, you gotta wait for an outside back to get injured and having to be there when Tom got category one,” Fittler said.
No Blues team has come back from a first-up loss to win games in Queensland and then NSW.
“No, that’s not impossible,” Fittler said. “This is obviously very tough, but it is what it is. We need to – as a group – be better. We’re gonna be better.”
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