Players can wait forever to have a game like Mitchell Moses did in Origin II. There are some fine players, players who are close to greatness even, who never get it at all.
New South Wales’ thumping 38-18 victory at the MCG doesn’t just keep the Origin series alive, it doubled as the game of Moses’ life.
There is no more poisoned chalice in rugby league than the New South Wales halfback jersey.
Ask Nicho Hynes, who bore the brunt of the state’s frustration after the loss in Sydney and paid for it by losing his spot to Moses.
Ask the litany of halfbacks who were used and discarded time and again during the years of Queensland’s eight-in-a-row dynasty.
You can even ask Nathan Cleary, the most accomplished halfback of his time who has won multiple Origin campaigns and multiple man of the match awards himself because even then there are still doubters who claim he’s yet to dominate a series, whatever that might mean.
So even if the Blues still have a Lang Park-sized mountain to climb if they’re to win the series, what Moses did in Melbourne means plenty.
It was a complete performance, not in that it was perfect but that it showed the full breadth of Moses’ skills as a playmaker as he used all the weapons he’s honed through his ten years in the top grade.
There were killer touches out the back of shape, like the short pass for Liam Martin’s opening try. Moses has always been good at those, dating back to his NRL debut with Wests Tigers back in 2014.
There was playing straight and digging right into the defensive line to create space for others, like Moses did in the lead up to Brian To’o’s second. That’s a lot harder than it looks – if it was easy, everybody would do it and an inability to play that way has been the death of many an aspiring Blues playmaker.
Then there’s his boot, which is a huge part of the reason Moses got this job in the first place.
He’s got power to it, the kind of power that looks effortless but only comes with a true mastery of timing, and he’s got to precision to put it just about wherever he wants – like right up there where a dive-bomber like Zac Lomax can get a shot at it, as he did for the winger’s first try.
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Then there’s the ability to use all these things at once. The very best don’t just have it all, they can put it all together.
All told, Moses finished with four try assists and played a hand in six of the Blues seven tries. He was even making plays in defence, twice forcing errors from Tom Dearden with well-timed rushes.
For a player whose weakness was once on that side of the ball to the point teams would actively go after him, it was a mark of how far he’s come and when you look at his career as a whole he has travelled a long way.
There were times in Moses career where he was viewed as a flat-tracker who could dominate an ailing team but would struggled against quality opposition.
That’s a tough reputation to throw off and it took Moses a long time to do so but he’s managed, bit by agonising bit. Parramatta’s run to the grand final two years ago helped. So did some solid Origin appearances since his debut at that level in 2021.
But this was graduation day and even though it doesn’t feel right to say a 29-year old man has come of age, this was a full revelation of exactly what Moses has become.
It would be wrong to paint this thumping win as a one-man show, as tempting as it can be with playmakers sometimes. No halfback is an island, as much as we try and make them one.
The Blues were ferociously physical throughout the match, using their size and strength and muscle to dictate terms to the lighter, faster Queensland side. Moses had a platform to play off all night.
Payne Haas was a huge part of that and so was Angus Crichton. The former produced the kind of performance we’re used to seeing from him at the Broncos, a game worthy of one of the world’s best forwards, while the latter continued the best form of his career in both attack and defence.
On any other night, both would have been worthy choices for man of the match.
Latrell Mitchell came up with the big plays, because nobody in rugby league plays bigger. Liam Martin and Stephen Crichton went after Reece Walsh like he owed them money. Dylan Edwards produced the consistency and effort he is so well-known for and Cam Murray’s directness and decisiveness made the attack look far more dangerous.
But strong individual efforts are not hard to find in Origin, even in teams that lose. Moses was able to channel the efforts of those around him, unleash the right Blue at the right moment.
He kept them playing straight, kept the muscle working the way it’s meant to. When Queensland staged a revival in the second half, which was always on the cards because even in a pine box no Maroon team is ever dead, it was Moses who kept things steady.
The pass he threw for Edwards’ try, where he directed traffic in the middle of the field with a speed and certainty which left no doubt as to where he wanted his teammates to be and what he wanted them to do before throwing a gorgeous ball to the debutant, was perhaps his greatest highlight from a pure football perspective even if the game was already won.
It might look a simple play but the players Moses directed end up running three decoys — Liam Martin, close to the ruck, and Stephen Crichton and Haumole Olakau’atu, further out.
That allowed Edwards to break to the outside of the defender before he’d even caught the ball, which is helped by Moses throwing it closer to where he wanted his fullback to be rather than where he was.
All of that, from Moses organising his runners to Edwards putting the ball down, happened in about ten seconds. Moses had the ball in his hands for less than one second.
But getting the acumen to set it up and the skill to execute it can take a footballing lifetime.
Passages like that can make you think a player is living in the future and the present at the same time and the play was a subtle summation of how far Moses has come and everything he’s capable of.
He will form a key part of the decider, no matter what happens. Queensland might be after this defeat but Lang Park is where the light shines out of them and they have come back from these sort of odds before – as recently as 2022, they shrugged off a Game II belting on neutral soil to claim a series victory.
The Blues have won just two deciders on Queensland soil in almost 45 years of Origin battles. It is the arena where plenty of New South Wales playmakers have entered so full of hope only to realise there is nothing but pain and failure waiting for them.
If Moses can help steer the Blues to victory he’ll become a part of Blues folklore in an instant. It would be a career-defining achievement.
It’ll take some doing and Moses needed the game of a lifetime to even give it a chance and after a match like that it feels like anything is possible.
via The Novum Times
The Novum Times 