Blues’ date with destiny

MELBOURNE: As far as Brad Fittler is concerned, NSW’s next era of State of Origin Blues have no choice but to win tomorrow night.
Not just for the sake of the series, even though only twice in NSW history have they recovered from 1-0 down to lift the Shield.
And not just because they’re on neutral turf in Melbourne, given in all but one of the eight years where a game has been played on neutral turf, the winner has gone on to claim the series.
But because NSW are preparing for a new era, one free of the heartbreak of the past 12 years.
Fittler has taken the youngest side in 14 years to Melbourne, with the most rookies in Origin history and just 39 games of NSW experience between them.
Five-eighth James Maloney is aged 31 but the rest all have the best part of their career ahead of them, including young halfback Nathan Cleary who finds himself at the helm.
“I always knew from the start it would be a different footy team,” Fittler said yesterday.
“If this team can have a bit of luck and things work out, we can drive footy forward for NSW for a long while.”
Fittler’s task isn’t easy. He concedes he can’t guarantee his rookies won’t crack on the big stage. “I can’t ensure that at all,” he admitted. “But so far, so good. It’s been a good camp.”
For that reason, Fittler’s preparation of the rookies is paramount. And the biggest challenge of that will come on game day. Fittler himself has the experience of having been there before as a youngster. He’s still the Blues’ youngest ever debutant. Having built a camp based on relaxation, yoga and meditation as a coach, he’s likely to ramp it up further on Wednesday.
For instance, last year in Lebanon World Cup camp Fittler told players to lie on grass and close their eyes after a number of relaxation exercises on the morning of the quarter-final.
Players were asked to close their eyes and picture the best day of their life. And to picture it happening that very night. “We’ve just got to nail (the preparation), it’s as simple as that,” Fittler said of his Origin team. “There are no second chances for us. We’re all pretty new to the game; the coaches and a lot of the players too. We’ve just got to nail it.
“We’ve got to win this game. Obviously there will be a reaction to whatever happens in this game, whoever wins or loses.
“We just want to get it right. We feel like we have, we feel like everyone is in a good mood.”