State of Origin 2018: NSWRL have filmed Brad Fittler’s Baby Blues to make an unprecedented rugby league documentary
HERE’S a blue movie the whole family can enjoy. In a rugby league first, the NSWRL spent the past eight months filming every moment of the Blues Origin build-up and series win for a fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary.
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THE story of the history making Blues is about to become a movie.
In a rugby league and State of Origin-first, the NSWRL have spent the past eight months filming every moment of the Blues Origin build-up and historic series win.
The NSWRL has recorded more than 100 hours of never-before-seen footage which will make for fascinating viewing.
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What began as an idea to pull back the curtain on Brad Fittler’s "new era" Blues has transformed into a perfectly timed archive of incredible video, which can never be repeated.
It’s another example of Fittler’s desire to promote the Blues by using different forms of media to re-engage fans across the state.
Not only has Fittler had a microphone attached to him during training sessions throughout the series, a cameramen and boom operator has been following him from the moment he was named head coach last November.
The one-hour production will be unprecedented as far as taking sports fans and viewers inside the inner sanctum of the state’s most revered sporting outfit.
The footage will take viewers inside the players’ meetings where Fittler and his staff plotted Queensland’s downfall, at the team’s yoga sessions, on the team bus, inside the coaches box on Origin night and with the players in the dressing rooms after the series was won.
Interviews with coaching staff and players is also captured.
“From the moment Freddy walked into camp and set what he stands for and what he wants his camp to be, we’ve captured it all,’’ Jodie Cross, NSWRL head of commercial and community relations, told The Sunday Telegraph.
“The raw emotion is incredible and it’s not until you’re in there that you realise the significance of it.’’
Cross said the NSWRL was yet to determine when the film would be shown and who would showcase the documentary with the Blues’ key sponsors and NRL broadcast partners Fox Sports and Nine undoubtedly interested in securing the footage.
“It’s yet to be determined, but we know the content we’ve got is unique and that’s something that started last year,’’ Cross said.
“We believed, as soon as Freddy was appointed it was going to be a new era for the Blues.
“We knew that we needed to capture all that content.
“We set about making sure that he was comfortable with having cameras there, 24/7. With 11 new debutants coming into the team, it’s really great that we’ve been able to capture that journey.
“It’s just as much about the new era and the new players coming through, as it is the new coach coming through. It’s unpredented access.
“The players have been really comfortable with it.
“When we produce it at the end, the fan will get a real insight into what it actually took to win a series and how he (Fittler) went about doing that and how much every individual in our camp dug in to do whatever it takes to get there.’’