As Billy Slater rams home final tactics to experienced players of the highest level ahead of the Origin decider this month, schoolboy coaches are drinking the Kool Aid.
They are quietly – or not so quietly – pinching some of the high-level tactics to motivate their rising stars.
Over at Marsden State High School, whose top team just missed out on glory in last year’s grand final, the head coach is feeding his players the very words uttered to him only years earlier by the Maroons coach himself.
“[Billy Slater] was actually discussing how he is really conscious of the words that he uses with his teams and in Queensland in particular,” Marsden’s head of rugby league excellence Jacob Stains said.
“He doesn’t like using the word ‘win’. They don’t like talking about winning games, purely because ‘win’ has the connotation there is a sense of luck involved. For example, you win at the lottery, you win a reward, or you win on the pokies.
“Whereas, he was using the words ‘you earn it’. You have got to earn a victory by the actions you take.”
Head coach at Mabel Park State High School, Ben Weston, has also ripped strategies straight from the Maroons’ playbook.
“Pride in the jersey,” he said.
“Obviously these boys aren’t playing Origin, but for some of them it is the highest level of footy they will play and it is a pretty good competition we play in.
“It’s all about effort and playing for the jersey.”
Already, about 15 of the nearly 90 boys in the school’s league program are contracted to NRL teams.
“They are only 16-18 so in the next few years they will get a debut for their NRL clubs and hopefully for Queensland,” Mr Weston said.
Marsden has produced several Origin stars, including Cameron Smith, Brenko Lee and Jaydn Su’A, to name a few.
They’re hoping for a few more in the future.
