Rookie Queensland Origin coach Billy Slater has added Cameron Smith and Johnathan Thurston to his coaching staff, despite the pair having very little coaching experience.
Three all time greats of Queensland Rugby League will reunite.
Having led the Maroons to the most dominant era in Origin history, 75% of the team’s ‘spine’ are now set to conspire against New South Wales once more.
They’re all retired now, but fullback Billy Slater, half Johnathan Thurston and hooker Cameron Smith are back in the State of Origin frame, emphatically aware of what it takes in Rugby League’s toughest contest.
And that’s about the most important thing, even as coach.
Thurston and Smith will assist Billy Slater, all apprentices taking over from the master, Wayne Bennett. Former Cowboy Josh Hannay also joins on as an assistant.
Embed from Getty ImagesThurston has been a part of the Maroons set-up in a mentor capacity since his retirement from representative rugby league in 2017 and his assistant role for Queensland will be his first coaching appointment.
Smith has been working in the media since his retirement from the game on the eve of the 2021 NRL season and his new role with Queensland will be his first coaching position.
Smith and Thurston are two of Queensland’s best ever players and have played a combined 79 games for the Maroons.
Smith is the most capped Origin player in history with 42 appearances, while Thurston is an Origin record-holder with 220 points from 99 goals, five tries and two field goals.
Slater, himself a rookie coach, welcomed the appointments of his two former teammates.
“Some people have this aura about them, and Cameron Smith is one of those people,” he told the media.
“We saw all the brilliant stuff that Johnathan brought to the game, but for me it was the work ethic that he demanded from himself.”
The toad in the room is that there’s no top-level coaching experience between the legendary trio. Not that its entirely uncommon.
Former Queensland Origin legend and the 13th Immortal Mal Meninga will forever be remembered as one of the Maroons greatest ever coaches, despite starting his Queensland coaching career with little experience behind him.
Meninga coached Queensland for 10 seasons between 2006 and 2015, winning 20 of his 30 matches as the Maroons went on a remarkable eight-year series winning streak with Slater, Smith and Thurston leading the dominant Queensland sides.
Brad ‘Freddy’ Fittler is the NSW Blues’ most capped player with 31 matches and fans had high hopes he would be successful as a coach when he took over the team in 2018, despite being relatively inexperienced as a coach.
The Blues had won just one of the past 11 series when Fittler took over and he immediately changed things up with his unique style of coaching and named 11 debutants in the 2018 State of Origin series opener.
With Fittler as coach, NSW won both the 2018 and 2019 Origin series and again claimed victory in last year’s State of Origin campaign.
Recent history suggests ‘inexperienced’ coaches and former players have success at Origin level, and with three of the greatest ever Queensland players in Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Johnathan Thurston leading the Maroons, Blues fans will be hopeful that the trio have less success as coaches than they did as players.
