At some point, it all becomes too much.
Too many missed passes. Too many injuries. Too many stars watching at home. Too many bad interchange decisions. Too much Queensland and especially too much Reece Walsh and Patrick Carrigan. Too many refereeing calls. Too many wounds, self-inflicted and otherwise.
New South Wales have lost the 2023 State of Origin series and Brad Fittler’s tenure as coach looks as good as over.
In all likelihood, several of the players who took the field in Wednesday’s 32-6 loss to Queensland at Lang Park face the end of their New South Wales rep careers, or at the very least they won’t make it to Sydney for the dead rubber.
It’s tempting to say the mission was doomed from the start.
For New South Wales to win this series they needed at least a few of the things they couldn’t control to go their way.
None of them did.
Tom Trbojevic joined the state’s long list of injured stars inside the opening two minutes.
The fact the first two Queensland tries were allowed was dubious at best and farcical at worst.
Even if everything else went right, that would have been a lot for New South Wales to overcome.
But as they have made an unfortunate habit of doing, the Blues were their own worst enemies even on a night when the twists of fate went against them.
Fittler has never been afraid of the unorthodox. From his first match in charge five years ago, when he blooded a record 11 debutants, it has been the defining feature of his time as coach for better and for worse. And on this night, it was for worse.
The decision to play Damien Cook, a hooker, at centre in relief of Trbojevic is the kind of desperate thing that should only happen when a team is so plagued by injuries they’re flat out getting 13 blokes on the field.
To call it a shot at the stumps is a disservice to shots at the stumps.
When Cameron Murray, who has covered centre at club level before, is on the bench it becomes the kind of bad bet that would bring the loan sharks around.
Cook is a fast, dangerous, scything player and it’s those qualities that made Fittler think he could cover for Trbojevic.
The Rabbitohs man showed it when he raced in for his state’s only try as he scooped up a ball in broken play and went for the pedal.
That score, with 22 minutes to go and Queensland already shaking up the celebratory cans, was a nice one for Cook and it was hard not be happy that he had at least one shining moment.
It is not his fault he was put in unfamiliar surrounds, isolated for all the world to see as he did his level best at a job for which he was not qualified.
It is not Cook’s fault, but his stint in the centres will be the defining feature of this match when it’s recalled in the years to come and there is no way to avoid the feeling it is the hinge upon which the game swung.
The Cook decision was different to the first Valentine Holmes try, which looked to contain at least one knock on, or Murray Taulagi’s try, which had a clear forward pass in the lead up.
New South Wales can’t control those things any more than they can control the bounce of the ball – which also went against them, by the way, for Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow’s try in the second half.
The Cook decision though, like the worst parts of Fittler’s time as coach, was a self-inflicted wound and one that could have been avoided.
His Blues have developed an inability to get out of their own way.
There are brave efforts and tough performances, like what Payne Haas produced in a mighty stint at prop, but it never seems to link together as passes go over the sideline and points are squandered and chances are lost.
They crash into each other like Cook and Josh Addo-Carr did in the lead up to Jeremiah Nanai’s late try.
That’s a tough load to bear against any Queensland team.
Against this one, with Walsh becoming the latest Maroon superhero before our eyes as he slaps his chest in the most joyous send off in rugby league history and with Carrigan playing like the best forward in the world and with Tabuai-Fidow gliding over the turf like he’s barely touching it at all, it’s a death sentence where you swing the axe yourself.
The Maroons play exhilarating football and they find a remarkable desperation in the very best of ways.
They played smarter, faster, harder and meaner than the Blues through two games and look like a team with total understanding of their own strengths and how to use them.
They are young and fast and wild in the best of ways, and they have a hunger for victory that is ravenous and all-consuming.
They succeed because they put themselves into a position to do so, with their selection calls and their effort and their game plan.
On a night of cruel fates and broken New South Wales dreams, the final twist must be how much this Queensland team resembles what the Blues used to be.
They look like Fittler’s first couple of Blues teams, in 2018 and 2019, when the big calls paid off and New South Wales looked like they could run and gun forever.
Back then, Fittler’s bold calls were the breath of fresh air the Blues needed to throw off the shackles of the Queensland dynasty. But that’s a long time ago now.
What Queensland have found is something New South Wales have lost. Fittler won’t get the chance to help them find it again.
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