Blues hard men shed tears in emotional pre-Origin bonding session

BLUES players met in a private room on Monday night to talk from the heart about what representing NSW meant to them. Emotions ran high.

Aaron Woods, Nathan Peats and Andrew Fifita at the NSW Origin team announcement.

IT was the emotional team meeting which reduced some of our toughest NSW heroes to tears.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal Blues players met in a private room at The Star on Monday night to talk from the heart about what representing NSW meant to them.

NSW coach Laurie Daley organised the meeting but didn’t attend — he wanted players to discuss their feelings only among themselves.

The conversation went around the room, each player standing up and talking from the heart.

New NSW hooker Nathan Peats was believed to be one of three players who shed tears when discussing his feelings about representing the Blues.

Aaron Woods, Nathan Peats and Andrew Fifita at the NSW Origin team announcement.

“It was good to see the boys have emotions,” said Blake Ferguson.

The NSW winger said there were a “couple of guys’’ who shed tears during the meeting.

NSW five-eighth James Maloney added: “Different guys get emotional, which is good. It means they care, that’s important.”

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Many spoke of wanting to make their families proud in State of Origin I.

NSW hit the training field for the first time yesterday, a sharp session at Cudgen, near their Kingscliff training base.

“The boys spoke at the meeting about what it means to play Origin,” Daley said. “And it means a lot to them. I didn’t go. I wanted it to be about them. There are different reasons why we all play the game but family kept coming up at the meeting.

Peats was reportedly emotional at the meeting.

“Family is very important to this team and very important to the players individually. Players are passionate. People don’t see the emotions they go through.”

Ferguson also spoke with passion about the meeting.

“We spoke about family, everyone wants to play for each other and do the job,’’ Ferguson said.

“Everyone spoke at the meeting. I told them I played for my family. I do everything for my kids. I am looking to have a big game — you think of your kids. It’s not the only thing that drives me but it’s probably one of my biggest factors.”

Maloney spoke about what was said inside the meeting.

“I said something similar (to Ferguson). Family is the real why you play the game,” Maloney said. “You want to able to come off and make the people you care about feel proud. And to make the state proud.

“It makes you aware and you can see what it means to different players. And it has to because you hit some tough times in a game and you need something driving you.”

Originally published as Blues hard men shed tears in emotional pre-Origin bonding session