State of Origin: The 10 most likely Gold Coast Origin players
The Bulletin counts down the next Gold Coast players likely to pull on an Origin jersey.
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WE’VE brought you the greatest Gold coast Origin players and big plays and ahead of Game Three, the Bulletin looks at generation next.
Over the next week, we’ll look at the 10 most likely Gold Coasters to play Origin in the coming years.
Some are Gold Coast products, some are Gold Coasters because of their links to the Titans but all have a future in rugby league’s biggest arena.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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1. Ryan James
It’s almost cheating ot put James at the top of this list, he’s so close to making his debut.
The Blues’ 18th man on Wednesday night, James is closer than ever to getting a game for NSW.
Initially in the frame for Game One before the Blues gave David Klemmer a chance that he has made the most of this series, James seemed set to make his debut in Game Two after an injury to front-rower Reagan Campbell-Gillard but was overlooked in favour of Sharks forward Matt Prior.
He was 18th man for last night’s game and shadowed the injured Boyd Cordner all week before warming up with the team ahead of the game.
It seems inevitable that James will get his chance.
Plenty of pundits including Gorden Tallis believe that if James had been brough up only a few kilometres from where he was, on the Queensland side of the border, he would already be a Maroon.
But James is proud of his Blues roots and his patience is set to be rewarded.
When it is, you only hope the Titans captain is able to become a longstanding member of the NSW team.
2. Ash Taylor
Taylor is so close to becoming an Origin player he was regarded a chance of making his debut for Queensland last night.
A Maroons player of the future, Talyor could come into contention as soon as Game One next year. although he will have to fend off Cowboys half Michael Morgan and Daly Cherry Evans.
Taylor has some of league’s heaviest hitters as his backers.
Matthew Johns is a major fans, while the Titans half has come up through the Queensland Emerging Origin system and has been in camp with the Maroons before.
However, he showed in last Sunday’s loss to the Broncos that he still has much to learn.
Taylor can still float in and out of games and needs to raise both his intensity and maturity if he is to turn out soon for Queensland.
3. Payne Haas
HE was the schoolboy prodigy who had 10 NRL teams chasing his signature and made his debut for Brisbane earlier this season at just 18.
A conversation with Wayne Bennett convinced the Gold Coast product that the Broncos would be the best place for him to develop and he has made every post a winner in his first 18 months at the club.
The Andrew Fifita clone was singled out in an opposed session against the Maroons last year, coming in for special treatment from the defence as he mimicked the former Blues front-rower who so troubled Queensland in last season’s series opener.
Playing for the Broncos under-20s at the time, Haas may yet replicate the scene in a sky blue jumper.
The teen, who has already captained NSW at under-18 level, is in line to represent the Blues in the Origin arena in the coming years if he can maintain his rapid rate of improvement.
4, David Fifita
IT seems ludicrous to label an 18-year-old a future Origin star but David Fifita has all the hallmarks of a successful Maroons player.
The Ipswich product is another to have graduated from the famous Keebra Park nursery and has made his NRL debut with the Broncos just months after leaving high school.
The Maroons have a virtual factory line of outstanding second-rowers coming through the ranks — many of them linked to the Brisbane — and Fifita will have to bide his time before pulling on a senior Queensland jersey.
But that only gives the hulking teen a chance to hone his already impressive game further.
The defending Peter Sterling medallist as the best schoolboy player in the country, Fifita was rated the best young forward he had seen in 20 years of covering the GIO Schoolboy Cup.
A distant relative of his NSW namesakes, the teen is set to become a Fifita that Queensland fans can love.
5. Corey Norman
Yes, Norman is behind a long line of classy halves holding spots or likely to play for Queensland.
But at his best, the former Keebra Park student can run a game like few others.
Norman’s efforts early in 2016 — when he won the MVP at the Auckland Nines and led Parramatta to success on the field despite their salary cap woes — led former NSW coach Phil Gould to suggest he would “walk into” a Blues jersey.
Being stuck behind the likes of Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Conk at the time, and now Cameron Munster, Ben Hunt, Daly Cherry Evans, Anthony Milford and Ash Taylor, have stunted his chances though.
Self-sabotage has not helped either, with Norman suspended for eight weeks in 2016, before this season being handed a breach notice for drinking while on the Eels’ injured list.
Despite that, he remains an incredible talent, who could end up in Maroon one day if he is able to clean up his act.
6. Max King
A fourth generation first-grade player, King made his debut with the Titans just before his 20th birthday and has showed enough to suggest he has what it takes to make it at the highest level.
Now 21, King has played 29 NRL games in the middle of the field and more than holds his own against the best forward in the game.
Surgery to correct the heart issue supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) — the same condition that swimmers Kyle Chalmers and Jack Cartwright battled — has provided only a minor stumbling block for King.
And while his season is over following a shoulder dislocation, the issue will not stop his charge to the top levels of the game.
The Blues have a wealth of young forwards in their Origin series-winning squad but King is the future and his time will come.
7. Keegan Hipgrave
QUEENSLAND’S best in last year’s under-20 Origin challenge, Hipgrave has since made his NRL debut with the Titans and has become a regular in the Gold Coast’s top squad.
The former Palm Beach Currumbin student is an aggressive forward who is making a name for himself as one of the toughest young bucks in the NRL.
Often referred to as a Greg Bird clone, Hipgrave is just as competitive as the fiery former NSW forward and throws himself into games with the same disregard for his own body as Bird did in his prime.
But the way he plays could be Hipgrave’s biggest enemy.
Taking on forwards twice his size has led to back and hamstring issues but if Hipgrave’s body can hold out, he could follow fellow young Titans Jarrod Wallace and Jai Arrow into the Maroons team in the coming years.
8. AJ Brimson
BRIMSON will run on to the hallowed turf of Lang Park on Wednesday night in Maroon — just a couple of hours earlier than if he was in the Origin team.
For the second successive year, Brimson will turn out for the Queensland under-20s, hoping to lead the young Maroons to a win.
Like Tanah Boyd, Brimson is a product of the Keebra Park nursery and made his NRL debut for the Gold Coast Titans earlier this year.
The 19-year-old is holding down the Gold Coast No. 6 jersey, keeping former prodigy — and a man once thought of as a future Origin star — Kane Elgey on the NRL sidelines.
A former touch football player, Brimson is equally at home at fullback and could be a long-term prospect in the No. 1 jersey.
9. Tanah Boyd
THE Keebra Park product is an Allan Langer clone down to the sandy hair and is determined to make just as much a mark in the halves as Langer did in his heyday.
While immortal Andrew Johns is his hero, Boyd could be the Broncos’ best half since Langer if he continues his rise through the ranks.
The Runaway Bay junior had NRL clubs lining up for his services but he is linked to the Broncos and wants to be Brisbane’s next star.
His rise through the Queensland age group ranks suggest he could one day be wearing Maroon in the Origin arena too, although he is likely to face a wait behind a list of talented halves.
10. Phillip Sami
Gold Coast Titans winger Phillip Sami is making every post a winner in his first full season of first grade and was the club’s leading tryscorer until passed by fellow flanker Anthony Don last week.
At just 20, Sami is still a raw talent but has shown enough to suggest that he’s on the development fast track and the Ipswich product could do on to play Origin for Queensland in the future after already pulling on the Maroon jersey at the junior level.
At 186cm and 97kg, Sami is no lightweight flyer but a modern back equally at home in the centres or at fullback.
But it’s his finishing ability that is becoming more and more valuable to the Titans and could eventually land him in the game’s biggest arena.
Sami makes the final cut just ahead of former Peter Sterling Medal winner Marion Seve.
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