DANE ELDRIDGE: Billy Slater’s Origin failures draw comparisons to Brad Fittler’s downfall

Remember when Billy Slater could merely mutter a nugget of his Queensland wisdom and we’d all whinny with delight like one of his yearlings?

From the moment he breezed in to Origin coaching in his dapper tan slacks, the Maroon legend and his agricultural charm had us nibbling chaff from the palm of his hand.

But with three losses on the trot and the spectre of back-to-back series defeats looming, his magic has vanished as rapidly as his team’s familiarity with the try line.

Now facing a must-win game to rescue the series in Perth - a tarmac surface where NSW habitually post humongous scores - his legacy is suddenly teetering between coaching genius and exposed stable-hand.

And worse - it’s a nosedive with eerie similarities to one of his vanquished rivals.

If the portents are accurate, Slater is about to enter the third phase of his own Brad Fittler Experience.

One glance in the rear view mirror and you’ll see the Queensland coach has walked a path so similar to Fittler’s that all that’s left is to select a hooker in the centres and return full-time to Channel Nine.

Both began with back-to-back series wins, both had their contracts extended amid euphoric dynasty chat, and most notably, both seemingly had clocked Origin and would never lose ever again.

But much like Fittler, Slater’s hot start has decomposed to a mosh of arctic skepticism and captain’s picks that make Tony Abbott’s knighting of Prince Phillip seem steady.

Foibles that were once cute are now mocked, and criticism that was once like water off waxed cardboard is met with awkward stares and cranky pants.

Remember Freddy’s earthing, underwater wrestling and turtleneck suits, and how refreshing they were until he lost the plot so hazardously that he confused the Saifiti brothers by picking Jacob out of the literal blue?

Slater’s novelty value has eroded in similar fashion, with the early appeal of his calm professionalism and unique disinterest in NRL coaching now swamped under selection smothers and so much psychobabble that he should be bulk-billing.

Who could forget his “we’re still Queenslanders” gibber last series or when he explained away David Fifita’s axing by waffling how he “took it like a true Queenslander”?

And while the impact of Michael Maguire’s passive-aggressive “glass houses” line last year may have been overstated - although Slater’s response of “I don’t really understand the comment” was willful ignorance bordering on Pig Latin - he can’t escape the fact his team has stopped winning games and scoring tries ever since.

While northeners usually get off on patriotic “Queensland spirit” propaganda like Slater’s, even the most ardent believers are starting to wax apocalyptic about the narrative not matching the results.

Furthermore, placing schmaltz before results is also fraying Slater’s logic at the selection table - much like Fittler’s late stage decay.

In addition to Fifita and the cryptic ignorance of Selwyn Cobbo - a mysterious standoff now stretching in to a second year - Slater has slowly adhered to Origin’s “burning man” mantra of the bigger the stakes, the bigger the doozy.

While the selection of Ezra Mam has been controversial for reasons external to the pitch, his decision to address a beaten forward pack by dumping halfback and skipper Daly Cherry-Evans has been compared to trying to fix a flat tyre with an oil change.

Add the extraordinary omission of Corey Horsburgh - the competition’s form beast and prototype angry redhead perfect for combating NSW’s mannerless pack - and the comparisons to Fittler’s self-scrambling selections are uncanny.

In fact, if Blues fans weren’t enjoying it so much, it’s enough to resurface suppressed memories like the alienation of Reagan Campbell-Gillard, the dumping of Stefano Utoikamanu after one 12 minute stint because he needed to be “rested” and the blooding of Tevita Pangai Junior so far from left-field he was in another solar system.

If Slater tortures a utility like Nicho Hynes or plants a hooker in the centres like Damien Cook and justifies it because he played there when he was nine - and even then it was probably just on ET’s Rugby League on the PC - then we’ll have Origin coaching’s version of the two pointing Spiderman meme.

And the gravest comparison for the Queensland coach?

Panicking at the selection table, chopping and changing halves and playing Aldi-level mind games by naming squads in alphabetical order is all very, dare we say it, New South Welsh.

Like Freddy, Slater has become the latest example of how a breath of fresh air in Origin can quickly become stale- and in some cases, even turn to hyperventilation.