The Blues’ miracle masked the truth: they were awful and changes have to be made

It may have been a record and a ground-shaking comeback victory, but there’s no sugar-coating it: the Blues were poor on Wednesday night.

Coach Laurie Daley knows it. The best thing he said post match was: “If we turn up at the MCG and play like that, we’ll lose.”

For Blues fans, that’s a positive. The worst thing would have been for NSW to revel in the victory against a 12-man Maroons outfit and roll out the same team in game two.

There have to be changes.

Again, Daley’s team was jumped in the first 20 minutes, just as they were in games two and three last year.

At the 30-minute mark in the last three Origins, NSW has trailed 20-6, 16-0 and 20-0.

That’s appalling and speaks to a serious fault line in the team, its defensive strategies and preparation.

Change one will be Payne Haas’ return. Mitch Barnett was under-done and Addin Fonua-Blake looked shocked by the pace at times.

One of them will drop to the bench for Jacob Saifiti who never got on the field.

Change two should be Blayke Brailey at starting hooker for Reece Robson. Brailey looked good in his 31-minutes, but in saying that, he may have been flattered by the fact he spent most of his game-time against a team playing a man down after the controversial 57th minute dismissal of Maroons fullback Kalyn Ponga.

Cameron Murray must start. Once Daley went to his bench rotation and began using Murray and Victor Radley, the bleeding stopped.

Queensland scored all their 20 points in the opening 18 minutes.

Over and above the comeback, the best thing the Blues did was hold Queensland out after that opening onslaught. That can’t be under-estimated. Any more points and they were cooked.

Starting with Murray would help stem the early bleeding.

Isaah Yeo is a supreme player. Maybe he shifts to starting front rower alongside Haas.

It’s not a ridiculous idea.

The next dilemma has been created by the mighty performance of Ethan Strange at five-eighth.

Non-devotees of the Raiders’ incredible run to the minor premiership last year would not have understood what a weapon he is.

He has everything you want in Origin – power, size, balance and defence – and he showed it all.

A running number six, he doesn’t provide the kicking prowess of the man he replaced Mitch Moses.

Daley will be tempted to bring Moses straight back. He was ruled out of the opener on match eve with a hamstring strain.

Field position severely hurt NSW. As good a tactical kicker Nathan Cleary is, Moses is slightly better. As a combination, they’re deadly.

Statistics from the match show Queensland averaged 10 metres better per set of six. That’s a lot.

If Moses starts, Strange can be brought on once fatigue sets in to tear them apart.

However, with Haas back, NSW will make more metres through the middle, and there might not be such a need for Moses’ kicking game.

Latrell Mitchell will be picked, if available, for game two. He should be good to go. Kotoni Staggs would be unlucky to miss out. He was terrific, while his centre partner Stephen Crichton continued the average form he has displayed for the Bulldogs.

You get the feeling Daley will go with Mitchell and Crichton, purely for their size.

Brian To’o played poorly, dropping balls for fun, he couldn’t possibly play that bad again. That’s a positive.

James Tedesco at fullback is a query. He probably saved his skin with his match-winning try, which was magnificent.

At times, he struggled to get into the game. Queensland had a plan to shut him down in the middle, where he loves to pop up off the back of half breaks from forwards.

Daley will most likely stick with him, unless he has another average match for the Roosters and Dylan Edwards plays out of his skin for the Panthers.

A huge positive was Cleary.

He kept the Blues in the game, setting up the first try for Hudson Young with a supreme kick into the in-goal. He hung in there and waited for the Maroons defensive wall to break down, which it inevitably did after Ponga was sent.

Cleary is the best player, possibly in history, against a defence which loses connection and alignment.

Rather than passively take the ball and feed someone outside or inside him, he starts to run onto the ball and defences crumble.

He can go to game two at the MCG confident, and in the absence of the boring annual argument that he has to prove himself at Origin level. What nonsense.

His man-of-the-match award was his third. Andrew Johns won four, and Cleary is only 28.