The Queensland Origin rookies who most impressed Maroons icons Greg Inglis and Wally Lewis

Not long afterwards, he was asleep.

It summed up the Broncos gun’s approach to his Origin debut, and had an immediate impact on Queensland legend Greg Inglis.

Asked what he was most impressed by in Cobbo’s first Origin, Inglis said simply: “His calmness.

“You’d think he’s played five or 10 games after seeing that performance wouldn’t ya?

“He just had his 20th birthday on Sunday, he’s a young kid from Cherbourg, but it was just his calmness in the week and in the lead-up to the game.

“The boys were laughing, telling me he’d fallen asleep on the bus on the way out to the ground.

“They turned around and he was asleep. He’s a natural footballer and he proved he’s meant to be there.”

Cobbo was probably more nervous about meeting Inglis for the first time than he was about his debut.

“When I first saw him in camp, I was pretty shocked, I didn’t know what to say,” Cobbo said of their first meeting.

“I was pretty star struck, but he’s been helping me through the camp, giving me tips. I’m very grateful for that.”

Just 19 games into his NRL career, Cobbo has been a revelation for the revitalised Broncos this season, scoring 10 tries in 12 appearances in 2022.

Fast, strong and athletic, Cobbo has silky skills for his size and reads the game well and was always going to draw comparisons to Inglis.

After just one Origin camp with him, Cobbo’s centre partner Dane Gagai already sees the similarities.

“He’s definitely got that aura about him where, when he runs the ball he doesn’t want to be tackled,” Gagai told CodeSports.

“He runs with that aggression, and he’s got the big body but he’s also got the skills to go with it.

“He’s only 20 and he’s only going to get better.”

For his part, Inglis urges Cobbo not to listen to the comparisons.

“Nah, just be your own self. That’s it,” Inglis told CodeSports of the pressure that comes from following in a legend’s footsteps.

“People said I was the next David Peachey when I first started. It always happens that people want to compare the younger players to other players, but he’s just gotta be himself.

“I spoke to him, gave him a few tips on how to read a game, but at the end of the day, I turned around to him and said, ‘Just play your football, you’re a good footballer, and that’s why you’re here.’”

Cobbo finished the game with 162 run metres, a linebreak and four tackle busts.

He also displayed his level head with a nice grubber to set-up Dane Gagai for Queensland’s first try of the match.

The Cobbo-Gagai partnership was something Inglis noticed during the lead-up.

“The beautiful thing about it was that he had a player with 20 games’ experience playing inside of him, coaching him and teaching him all the way through camp as well,” he said.

“Everyone was writing off Selwyn Cobbo, saying he shouldn’t have been here.

“He belongs on this stage. He’s a natural footballer, and he’s only going to get better and better.”

*****

Sitting calm and content on a plastic lawn chair in the Maroons’ sheds 90 minutes after full-time, Queensland legend Wally Lewis casts his eye over the current crop of players wearing the jersey he helped make famous.

There’s Reuben Cotter, Kurt Capewell and Josh Papalii’i, still in their playing kit, sipping beers and listening to country music.

Lewis doesn’t need prompting to talk about the debutant who impressed him most.

“Reuben Cotter … mate, that was something else from him,” he tells CodeSports.

“There’s not much of him – he’s five foot ten, and weighs about 88 kilos, maybe a touch more. He puts his body on the line all the way through and he performed like a bloke who’d had a dozen games of Origin experience.

“They’re the things that are the difference between success and failure, having blokes willing to perform like that.”

Cotter’s 80-minute, 51-tackle performance was a highlight for Lewis, but he also spoke glowingly of another Queensland rookie.

Like the rest of the 80,512 people in attendance, Lewis thought Jeremaiah Nanai’s night was over when he limped off after suffering what looked like a gruesome ankle injury.

But after being helped off the field, Nanai spent 16 minutes on the sidelines, before returning.

It’s the kind of performance Queensland’s Origin spirit was built on.

“We got told that it was likely that he’d broken his ankle,” Lewis says. “It was a terrible blow for him.

“Then we saw him warming up and about to come back and on and I thought, ‘What the f — k, he can’t go back on.’

“But he came on, and he was incredible when he did.

“That’s what Origin is about.

“He’s a kid everyone thought was a novice at the Cowboys, but he came along and proved himself. People asked questions about his spot in the team, but he was sensational.”

*****

Five minutes after full-time, Stephen Crichton stands in the middle of the field and looks towards the eastern grandstand, where his friends and family are waving at him.

While Cobbo, Cotter and Patrick Carrigan lived out their childhood dreams by winning their Origin debuts, Crichton stands on the other side of the ledger.

He cuts a dejected figure as he jumps the advertising hoardings and hugs his loved ones. It’s a bittersweet moment.

He’s just fulfilled a childhood dream, but none of it went as planned.

Wearing the number 14 jersey, Crichton was bizarrely left on the bench until the 52nd minute of the game, and was immediately placed on report for a dangerous tackle that would have been play-on back in Lewis and Fittler’s day.

The emotion written across Crichton’s face is erased momentarily as he’s embraced by his partner Leone and brother Christian, who also plays for the Panthers.

His friends and family are all wearing specially designed Stephen Crichton supporter T-shirts, and his Panthers teammates Spencer Leniu, Izack Tago and Taylan May are all sitting in the same row, with Tigers forward Luciano Leilua not far away.

Earlier, a group of 12 of Crichton’s mates had piled into a borrowed minibus in Mt Druitt and battled through the heavy game day traffic to Homebush.

An hour before kick-off, Christian is waiting in line for an almond milk flat white. He’s not nervous. ‘Critta’s’ played in grand finals and other big matches before, and won his fair share, too.

Wearing his own black, blue and white Stephen Crichton T-shirt, he’s just excited for his brother, his family and the area they represent.

Their parents couldn’t attend the game because of church commitments, but Christian says they’ll be glued to the TV come kick-off.

“They’re stoked. They’re heaps proud. They couldn’t make it here tonight, but they’re so happy and so proud of Stephen and his hard work and where he is now. Just blessed, honestly,” Christian tells CodeSports.

“If you know our family, it’s faith first and everything else comes after.

“But they’ll be watching and they’re just so proud of him.”

The Crichton brothers are regulars at the community touch games and footy clinics held around Mt Druitt, and they say the banter and trash talk is as intense as anything you’d ever see on an NRL field.

There was none of that on Wednesday night though; just a tight-knit group embracing their hero who’d had a tough day at the office.

“We all get behind our own,” said Christian.

After a few minutes of hugs and photos, a security guard ushers Crichton away. He takes a couple more selfies with his mates, before climbing back over the advertising boards and across the quickly-emptying pitch.

It’s quiet for a moment before one of his mates breaks the silence: “Yeah, Critta!”

A few others join in too.

Their shouts are heard around the ground as Crichton waves an arm in acknowledgment and starts jogging slowly across the pitch towards the tunnel.