State of Origin: Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow the first of a new Queensland golden generation
The Maroons didn’t just save face with victory in Origin III, they unleashed the first of a generation of talent set to create a new Queensland dynasty.
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Amid Ben Hunt playing the best game of his Origin career, Mitchell Moses and Jack Wighton fighting to belong at the game’s highest level and Latrell Mitchell’s Hail Mary falling just short, there was a glimpse of Queensland’s future.
If you blinked, you might have missed it. It only went for five seconds. But when Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow poured onto Tino Fa’asuamaleaui’s pass to score on debut it was a look at why Queensland’s tomorrow can be so much brighter than today.
It was a risk, playing Tabuai-Fidow. He’s only played 19 NRL games and just a few of those have been at centre, plus he had to mark up on Tom Trbojevic, who was 80 minutes away from winning the Wally Lewis Medal as player of the series.
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If Tabuai-Fidow had struggled on debut everybody would have understood. But instead the Cowboys flyer was solid in defence, both at centre and wing when he switched to cover for Valentine Holmes’ shoulder injury, and he found one magic moment when he scorched over for a try.
Things will only get easier for Tabuai-Fidow from here on in. Imagine what he’ll be like for Origin I next year, with 20 more NRL games and another pre-season under his belt, plus a few extra kilos of muscle. Through him, Queensland are building the kind of weapon that can turn a series, their own version of Trbojevic or Josh Addo-Carr, a damn matchwinner.
And he won’t be alone. Before long Sam Walker and Reece Walsh, two of Tabuai-Fidow’s teammates in the 2019 Queensland Schoolboys side that is fast looking like the breeding ground of the state’s Origin future, will join the North Queenslander in Maroon.
Through in another emerging star in Moeaki Fotuaika, Queensland’s best forward through the three games at just 21, and the likes of Fa’asuamaleaui, Harry Grant and Kalyn Ponga, plus older hands Cameron Munster and Josh Papalii’i and all of a sudden a Blues dynasty doesn’t seem so inevitable.
It’s hard to get all the young fellas in and building for the future takes patience, which is often in short supply in rugby league – especially when the pressure is on.
But you have to get something out of a dead rubber. Queensland have got Tabuai-Fidow through unscathed, with his confidence sure to soar the next time he’s called upon. If you can’t win a series, setting up to win a series in the future is the next best thing.
THE SCHOOLBOY TEAM THAT CAN FULFILL MAROONS DREAM
The 2019 Queensland Secondary Schools team didn’t just end a decade of Blue domination in schoolboy footy, it could be the side on which the Maroons build their Origin revival.
Already six players from the team – Hamiso “Hammer” Tabuai-Fidow, Sam Walker, Reece Walsh, TC Robati, Tuku Hau Tapuha and Xavier Savage – have cracked first grade, and Tabuai-Fidow has played Origin
.
“Hammer kind of came out of nowhere. He was playing for the Northern Pride in the Mal Meninga Cup and I’d seen him on tape but I’d never seen him live,” said Joe O’Callaghan, who coached the side and is now head of pathways at South Sydney.
“And when you see him live you get more of an appreciation with how he moves.
“He did some stuff at the selection carnival in Roma that shocked me, that made me think this kid was something really special.
“Hammer is always the type of guy where the higher the grade he was playing, the harder he would go.
“The minute he played his first NRL game he went up a notch. When he plays at a higher level he goes to another level and I think that’s what’s going to happen with Origin.
“Defending in the centres at this level will be his biggest challenge, because he’s mainly played centre or wing and he’s marking a fair player in Tom Trbojevic, but it won’t be through lack of trying.”
Tabuai-Fidow will be the first player to ascend to Origin but plenty of others are expected to follow.
Walsh was sensationally selected for Origin II before a hamstring injury ruled him out, while Walker is in the box seat to replace Daly Cherry-Evans at the scrumbase as early as next year.
Like Tabuai-Fidow, their talent was obvious as juniors. Walker was named player of the tournament in 2019 while Walsh was man of the match in the final, a thumping 34-10 win over NSW CCC that gave Queensland their first schoolboy title since 2009.
Seven players – including Walsh, Walker and Tabuai-Fidow – were later named in that year’s Australian Schoolboys side.
“You have a kid like Reece Walsh as your 14, it shows where that team was at,” O’Callaghan said.
“We picked Reece Walsh as the 14 and I copped a fair bit of heat for that at the time, but I just thought that’s what was best for that group.
“I watched Reece and Sam play in the halves together two years earlier and they were both such strong players they almost worked against each other – they’re really dominant players.
“I had a really good chat to Reece, I said ‘mate, do you trust me? I think what’s best for the team is you to start at 14, I’ll use you at fullback, hooker, five-eighth, everywhere. I think it’ll be great for this team and if you trust me I’ll get you enough field time to make the Aussie team.’
“And he was great. That was the best thing about that group. There were so many strong players but they were all up for the cause, to break that drought. They weren’t just being selfish, worrying about themselves and trying to win an Aussie jersey.
“You have someone like Xavier Savage in your No. 20 jersey. In any other world, any other carnival, Hammer, Reece and Xavier would be starting fullbacks for three different sides and we were lucky enough to have all three in the same team.”
There’s still plenty of talent from the team who can graduate to the next level.
Star backrowers Brendan Piakura, contracted to Brisbane, and Jack Howarth, signed to Melbourne, are NRL players-in-waiting, and Canberra prop JJ Clarkson is another who could push for first grade with a bit of injury luck.
“It comes in cycles,” O’Callaghan said.
“The dynasty chat and all that kind of stuff, I wouldn’t be getting too fazed at the moment because I know how strong that group was.
“There’s other kids who are only a year or two ahead of them – like David Fifita and Harry Grant and Tom Dearden – who are still coming up.
“If you’re just patient with it for two or three years, you don’t rush them all in, it’ll be a really strong Origin side in a few years’ time.”
2019 QUEENSLAND SECONDARY SCHOOLS TEAM
1. Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, 2. Tyrone Sa’u, 3. Caleb Hodges, 4. Izzy Higgins, 5. Trey Peni, 6. Toby Sexton, 7. Sam Walker, 8. Solomon Torrens, 9. Ediq Ambrosyev, 10. J.J Clarkson, 11. Jack Howarth, 12. Brendan Piakura, 13. Jack Hoffman
14. Reece Walsh, 15. Tuku Hau Tapuha, 16. Isaiah Vailalo, 17. Connagh Takairangi, 18. Joshua Bevan, 19. TC Robati, 20. Xavier Savage
Originally published as State of Origin: Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow the first of a new Queensland golden generation
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