The day James Maloney and Billy Slater played together for North Sydney Bears
AS they prepare to face off in Origin once again, James Maloney has revealed the first time he and Billy Slater played together they wore the red and black of the North Sydney Bears.
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THEY first met playing for the old North Sydney Bears back in 2006. Billy Slater was fullback, a young James Maloney at five-eighth.
Team-mates for 80 minutes in the famous red and black.
This Wednesday night, Slater and Maloney will be on the same field yet again, this time during State of Origin III in Brisbane.
Slater had been dropped to North Sydney, Melbourne Storm’s then feeder club, 12 years ago.
Maloney had shown up and trialled with Norths, who were competing in the NSWRL first division.
On that day, Norths played Manly at Brookvale Oval in a preliminary game to the main NRL match.
Slater played just one game for Norths before returning to the NRL.
Maloney remembers the moment well.
“I was at North Sydney, Billy came back one day and played at Brookvale. I was at Norths, there you go,” Maloney said.
“He was only back for one game. Probably the last time he played reserve grade. It was a long time ago.
“That was when I first came to Sydney. I had come down that year (from the central coast). Me and five mates went to the open trials at North Sydney and I then went to Parramatta from there.
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“That’s where I started. Billy was already pretty good. He is a hell of a player.
“Bill had already played a bit of first grade. He might have even played Origin by then.”
Maloney was something of a nomad early in his career, spending several seasons playing reserve grade and Ron Massey Cup before teaming up with Slater again at Melbourne in 2009.
Origin III will be Slater’s final appearance in a Queensland jumper. He will lead the Maroons with Greg Inglis out injured.
“He is a really good player — a really good talker,” Maloney said. “As a halfback, it helps because he sits behind and tells you, especially in terms of kicking.
“Bill used to tell you ‘left corner, right corner, fullback’s gone, hook back’, things like that. He’s just busy, always busy.”
NSW players are hellbent on securing a historic three-nil series whitewash.
And Maloney believes a clean sweep would rock Queensland.
“It has got to do some damage to them, surely,” Maloney said. “In Queensland’s dominance, they only ever did it (a whitewash) once. To go and do it, surely it would have to have some impact.
“What that is, I have no idea.
“We still think we have a lot of improvement is us. If we do that, we’ll be sweet. The focus is on us.”