How Hugh van Cuylenburg joined Billy Slater to cultivate Queensland to Origin victory

Inside the work of a Victorian who sparked Queensland to an Origin victory and why he was recognised inside the changerooms moments after their thrilling win.

Hugh van Cuylenburg, founder of The Resilience Project has been recognised by State of Origin winning coach Billy Slater moments after his team won their thrilling series decider over New South Wales.

The Victorian born Van Cuylenburg is known for his work in teaching mental health strategies to build resilience and happiness.

He has worked with several renowned athletes in the past including Dustin Martin, Steve Smith and Billy Slater. He also played and coached Melbourne University Cricket Club to a club championship in 2007-08 in the Victorian Premier Cricket competition.

Following the Maroon’s upset 10-point win over the Blues in front of a packed home crowd, Slater was captured in his post-game speech crediting Van Cuylenburg for the influence he had on the team during their pre-Origin camp.

“Hugh is back in Melbourne but he has been a big part about how we all think about things,” Slater said post-match to his players.

Slater was interrupted mid-sentence by several players as they said “dis”, a key word in one of Van Cuylenburg’s stories which he shares to thousands of Australians every year in his talk shows.

The word in the story, ‘dis’ resembles gratitude and being grateful for what you have.

Van Cuylenburg spent the first eight days of their 10-day camp with the team before the Origin series.

Hugh van Cuylenburg with the Queensland players during their pre-Origin training camp.

He contracted COVID and had to leave early although he continued to work with the group through video presentations over zoom with the assistance of coaches to run the sessions.

Maroons captain Daly Cherry-Evans had also thanked Van Cuylenburg in a message he sent the day after they won the series which Van Cuylenburg described as lovely.

After game one, the team also video called Van Cuylenburg at midnight after the win as he was away for the birth of his third child.

Van Cuylenburg met Slater in 2015 in his first job with a professional sporting team working with the Melbourne Storm.

In that time, the pair built up a great relationship which was established through the support Van Cuylenburg gave to the successful Storm.

So when Slater was elected as coach of the Maroons for this year he rang up Van Cuylenburg to catch up for a coffee.

Slater offered him a role in the Maroons coaching team featuring rugby league legends Jonathan Thurston and Allan “Alfie” Langer.

Van Cuylenburg had little knowledge of rugby league but knew heaps about the mental side of the game.

Slater asked Van Cuylenburg if he could come on board to play a big part in helping the team enjoy every moment.

Slater told him that Origin was the best six weeks of a player’s life but often they won’t enjoy it because they are anxious or worried about the fear of failure.

He wanted Van Cuylenburg to help the team pay attention to the opportunity they have got rather than worry about the things that could go wrong or the issues that may pop up.

Van Cuylenburg said he was pumped after the flat white.

“We had a coffee, about an hour and a half we chatted for and by the end of it, I wanted to put a jumper on and play, I was that pumped up about the opportunity,” Van Culenberg said.

Van Cuylenburg said he loved the experience.

He went into detail about some of the special activities he was a part of before the series opener, including one which was led by Slater.

“Just seeing him work on camp, he is an extraordinary people person. He is incredible with people,” Van Cuylenburg said about Slater.

“New South Wales on paper according to everyone were just such a better side.

“But what I saw was the whole camp was around getting them to understand the history of the jersey and that they weren’t playing for themselves, they were playing for something so much bigger.

“It wasn’t about them, it was about their state and everything was about their state.

“I remember day two of the first camp before the first game, we were in Brisbane staying in the W hotel and we had our first training session at Suncorp and he said we are going to walk there and in the group.

“I quietly looked on maps going ‘what the f—, that’s 20 minutes away, why are we doing that, surely we can afford a bus.’

“And then as we walked the streets of Brisbane, I got why he was doing it because people were going absolutely berserk, like cars were stopping, winding their windows cheering the boys on.

“You don’t get that in Melbourne because 17 out of 18 people hate your guts.

“Like this is like every single person that walked past, I’m talking like corporate men’s suits, grandma’s, blokes on building sites, absolutely everyone yelling and screaming for them like school girls.

“And I got why he did it, because he is reminding them how much this means for Queenslanders.

“The whole camp, everything was just about we’re doing this for our state, we have been through so much with the floods and the bushfires.

“Everything was about giving something back to Queensland.”

Hugh van Cuylenburg speaking to the Queensland players at the training camp before the Origin 1.

Van Cuylenburg explained other sessions the team did including each individual‘s story about their first memory of the Maroons.

Slater began the activity by talking about the first ever Queensland jumper he ever owned when he was six-years-old and how he would wear it around the house dreaming of playing one day.

The stories followed as each player in the team shared their first memories in an experience which Van Cuylenburg described as incredible.

The team did another activity which worked well in gelling the group together and creating a positive atmosphere.

The team also had Resilience Project journals which were used by the players to write down what they were grateful for.

Van Cuylenburg spoke of his favourite moment in the tournament, involving debutant Tom Gilbert, which proved how well the team did all together, on and off the field.

“My favourite moment of the whole thing was watching them run out onto the ground at Suncorp and if you watch the footage most of them are smiling,” he said.

“It wasn’t this, ‘I’m fired up, we‘re going to smash them’, I’m sure there was an element of that inside them but a lot of them just had this big smile on their face.

“Tom Dearden did, playing his first game of Origin, he just couldn’t get the smile off his face.

“He didn’t look nervous, he just looked so happy.

“They just looked so happy and relaxed to be at their home at Suncorp.

“And that to me when I watched them run out the ground smiling made us feel like we did a good job here.”

Van Cuylenburg the Victorian certainly enjoyed the occasion just like hundreds of thousands other Queenslanders did.

“I’m a Melbourne boy so cricket’s my favourite sport followed by Aussie Rules and I haven’t watched much league in my life but it was the best game of sport I have ever watched in my entire life,” he said.

“I have never seen anything like it.

“I was very emotionally invested because I’ve spent a lot of time with those guys.

He went into further detail after being asked again about one of greatest Origin games of all time.

“I was wearing a full Queensland tracksuit at home in the living room and I didn’t sit down the entire time,” he said.

“I stood in front of the television and I couldn’t sit down.

“I stood up during the whole thing and Penny (wife) kept shushing because the baby was trying to sleep and I’m going off my head.

“I haven’t been like that for a sporting contest since I was like a 10-year-old watching Australia play one-day cricket,” he laughed.

“You have never seen anyone look like a bigger nuffy.”

Van Cuylenburg credited the group for how “incredibly humble and warm and welcoming” they were to an outsider of the game.

“I’m not from rugby league, I’m not from Queensland but it didn’t matter, I’m a human being and that’s all that really mattered to them,” he said.

“And on the plane I was literally researching who they were on the way up.

“I did a spreadsheet with a picture of their face, their club and where they came from and I was like ‘gee they’re big time’.

“I expected a bit more bravado and cockiness but it was the opposite.

“They were so humble and so down to earth.”