NSW's breakthrough State of Origin win in 2014 only served to extend Queensland's dynasty by delaying a Blues rebuild, iconic coach Phil Gould says.
The lone triumph of Paul Gallen and his men amid 11 series wins for the Maroons perpetuated selection mistakes and held back young players, Gould told Wide World of Sports.
NSW ended a historic streak of eight consecutive series wins for Queensland in 2014, but then lost another three series in a row. Gould famously lost patience in 2016, declaring that there was a culture of "selfishness" among senior Blues players.
Gould believes that the 2014 win should have served as a parting reward for a generation of battered NSW players, rather than a green light to continue.
"I'd always thought that once we'd broken through in 2014, there were a number of columns I wrote leading up for that 2014 series that a coach is going to have to take a two or three-year approach to this," Gould said on The Captain and Coach.
"That if we keep changing the team and we keep looking for something different - a new hotel, a new something, a new preparation - rather than just saying, 'Well look, we need to build a team over two or three years to get his win', because I'm sure it's going to take that long to match what Queensland is doing with us.
"Paul rightly points out that they were a great side. When we won, when we broke through in 2014 and I don't think we'd ever gone through that [rebuilding] program ... I thought, 'Good, at least they've got the monkey off their back, now we'll see some changes. Maybe we'll see some some freshness, maybe now they can take their time over the next couple of years and try to build something special'.
"And we kind of didn't. We kind of went rushing back to the old [players] and the fellas we'd been using before.
"Which was when Paul was injured and suddenly we got beat in game one [of 2015] and I said, 'Why rush him back?' I said A, he's not ready and B, I thought we were moving on from all this anyway."
The "selfishness" that Gould criticised, where senior NSW players dominated the crucial stages of games and too often failed, may have been a symptom rather than the problem itself. Players don't select themselves, nor coach themselves.
Veterans like Gallen and vice-captain Robbie Farah kept getting the nod, which was justified by form. Farah didn't have a legitimate long-term successor until Damien Cook made his Origin debut in 2018, while Gallen kept putting runs on the board.
When Gould first criticised Gallen's inclusion in 2015, the NSW captain had skippered the breakthrough series win and been the Wally Lewis Medallist (man of the series) just the previous year. In 2016, Gallen was man of the match for Australia in the Anzac Test ahead of Origin, then went on to captain Cronulla's maiden premiership.
"As far as my individual form goes, I was doing everything right. I thought I deserved to be selected," Gallen said.
"You've got to remember around that time, too, [Boyd] Cordner, [Tyson] Frizell, [David] Klemmer, [Aaron] Woods, Wade Graham, Jimmy Maloney, Pearcey [Mitchell Pearce], Blake Ferguson, Josh Jackson, all these guys were playing. I played with James Tedesco, Matt Moylan.
"All these guys were in the team, so I didn't think I was blocking anybody from coming through, I didn't think I was holding anyone back from coming through. I made a decision at the start of the 2016 series that it would be my last year in rep football."
Gould said that even when young players were selected, they were unable to take ownership of the team due to the presence of lingering veterans. That became apparent when the Blues, who won in 2014 by taking out the first two matches, continued to fail in the biggest games of all: deciders.
"The Queensland side were an outstanding side, they would have probably been dominant in any era," Gould said.
"The thing that always got me about that era though, from 2006 to 2017, where they won 11 of 12 titles, there was seven deciders. Seven of those series went down to game three, which meant NSW had already beaten them once in that year. They'd already beaten them once. Not once on those seven occasions could we do it a second time.
"So in seven deciders in a row, where it came down to one game and a lot of those games came down to the last 10 or 15 minutes, we couldn't get it done. That was really frustrating.
"We didn't seem to be evolving in that part of the game and we didn't seem ever ready for that part of the game. They [Queensland] had always looked more comfortable in what they were doing, which I put down to the fact that our playmakers never felt as though they were in control. They weren't in control of our team, let alone of the game."
Gallen said that throughout the Queensland dynasty, the Maroons simply had superior players.
"From being out there, we were doing our best, we were following the game plan, without a doubt," he said.
"But when something special needed to happen, Queensland seemed to have a [Cameron] Smith or a [Johnathan] Thurston or a [Cooper] Cronk or a [Darren] Lockyer come up with a special play; and they did, whether it be a 40-20 or a kick downfield that pulled up in the in-goal or a Cooper Cronk 40-metre field goal.
"They just had those players to be able to come up with that special play. I suppose on the other side of the coin, we didn't, but at no stage did we ever go out of the game plan or ever stop trying at all.
"Everyone across the whole park was busting their guts for their state and those moments, those crucial moments, I thought they probably had the better players to get the job done."
Gould didn't entirely accept that position, despite acknowledging that Queensland had greater talent.
"No one's ever questioned the effort, no one ever gets into Origin and doesn't bust their arse and doesn't try their best to do things," he said.
"It just always felt that we were lacking in those moments and in a lot of those deciders, we kind of got beat the same way two or three times in a row; and that's for me where the side wasn't evolving.
"The mentality of the team wasn't evolving. The psychology of the team wasn't evolving. It was kind of like 'here we go again' type stuff. You could feel it from fans, 'Well, we know what happens from here, we've seen it before', and we just couldn't break through.
"I never felt that we were going to break through the way the team looked to me, with the mentality that we were having in those positions [late in games] or who was coming most to the fore during those positions, thinking it was their responsibility."
Gould said that he had simply offered his honest opinion when criticising the team, just as he would have done as coach. He never spoke it through with NSW coaches, which included two men he coached for the Blues: Ricky Stuart and Laurie Daley.
Daley was in charge for the 2014 victory, then when Gould's criticism escalated.
"Why did you never try to get involved or have an opinion for the team [internally]?" Gallen asked Gould.
"The position you held, I'm sure people would have listened. I think it's fair to say, being who you are, people would have listened. Be it [NSWRL CEO] Dave Trodden, Ricky Stuart, Laurie Daley - they bled for you. You coached them. I'm sure had you had an opinion, they would have listened."
Gould replied: "Yeah, and I'm sure if they wanted my opinion they would have rung; which they never did and which I wouldn't expect them to do anyway. It's their team and they're coaching to the best of their ability.
"Everyone was busting their arse, everyone was trying really hard, I know how passionate about the game those boys [Stuart and Daley] are. But I guess they wanted to do it their way too, same as Brad Fittler wants to do it his way.
"I don't interfere with Brad Fittler and I never interfered with Ricky or Laurie or any of those fellas that took over in those times. They knew Origin really well and they were doing the best they can. It doesn't mean they're picking up on everything that's happening.
"Now, I might have been wrong, too. Maybe if I'd have said that, they'd have come and spoken to me, they'd have said, 'No, you're wrong about that, this is why this is this'. They never explained that either.
"But as I say, it was a difficult time for all. I spoke honestly about what I saw, I've always done that as a coach, I don't sugar-coat the bitter pill. That for me was something that we could have tidied up that I think could have made a difference, or I hope could have made a difference at that time.
"Maybe it would have made no difference, maybe they were just too good. But it always frustrated me that we got them into a decider seven times and we couldn't win one of those, which means there was something lacking in our mentality at the crucial part, or our belief factor or our trust factor at those parts of the games. That's why, perhaps, the same players kept coming forward looking as though it was their role to dominate the play at that time.
"Now that we've gone back over the last couple of years and we look at the young fellas that we've brought into the side - we've invested in a young halfback in Nathan Cleary and there's been a newness and a freshness about it - hopefully over a period of time, they can build up the sort of domination Queensland have enjoyed in the past. It's a great opportunity to do so, with all those great [Maroons] players retiring.
"No one's ever doubted the courage or the commitment of the fact that everyone was busting their arse, but sometimes there are different ways to do things."
Daley lasted just one more season as NSW coach, with Brad Fittler taking over in 2018. Gallen believes that Daley does not get enough credit for his contribution.
"I know Freddy's getting all the credit and deserves it because they've won, but he [Daley] stuck it out thick and thin through a very tough time and he blooded a lot of these guys," Gallen said.
"[James] Tedesco, Ferguson, the Trbojevic brothers, Jack Wighton, Jimmy Roberts, he had a lot of those guys in camps over that two, three-year period. Boyd Cordner especially, David Klemmer, Tyson Frizell.
"They saw the tough times NSW faced. Now the Blues are winning, hopefully those boys never have to go back to what we went through and they can keep the roll going - win 10 in a row!"
from WWOS http://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/nsw-state-of-origin-phil-gould-paul-gallen-2014-series-win-rebuild/7ad5347a-e7c8-4ef8-89a1-218d5cd0894b
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