Andrew Fifita’s Cronulla presentation speech to Matt Prior shows why he’s made for Origin

QUEENSLAND are about to discover what some of the hardest players in the game already know – that 31-year-old Blues debutant Matt Prior is built for Origin.

ANDREW Fifita can’t talk.

His coaches, sitting at tables in front of him would argue, that’s not such a bad thing.

On this occasion, though, the entire room wants to hear every word that Fifita has to say.

The problem is, the 118kg forward, who swats grown men away with his bare hands, is crying.

The tears aren’t for him. They’re for his front-row partner at Cronulla, Matt Prior.

It’s October 6, 2016, a Thursday night, and Fifita, swaying uncomfortably, is up on stage inside the Cronulla Sharks Leagues Club auditorium.

WATCH FIFITA’S SPEECH TO PRIOR IN THE VIDEO PLAYER ABOVE

Andrew Fifita gave an emotional speech to teammate Matt Prior at the 2016 Sharks presentation night.

This is the same 40-year-old function room that has held and paraded them all. Legends such as Tommy Bishop, Greg Pierce, Gavin Miller, Steve Rogers, Cliffy Watson and Andrew Ettingshausen.

It’s the same treated-pine stage where an emotional Mal Meninga stood prior to the 1997 Super League war, declaring “rugby league has given me nothing”.

And it’s the same stage where former Sharks coach Chris Anderson was jeered from for dropping Preston Campbell to reserve grade.

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Prior and Fifita shared Cronulla’s Player of the Year award in 2016. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

But few of the 200 guests seated in silence can recall raw emotion in the old room like this.

Four days after spearheading Cronulla to their first NRL trophy, Fifita and Prior were named joint-winners of the club’s 2016 Player of The Year. And so now, nearing 11pm, they’re standing side-by-side on stage.

There’s not so much as a whisper in the room. Even the bar tenders have stopped picking up glasses and MC Andy Raymond, from Fox Sports, is patting Fifita on the back, as if trying to coax a word out of him.

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Prior’s call up to NSW was surprising to some, but not at all to those who know him. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

“I’ve been doing this for 20-something years,” Raymond says into the microphone, “I’ve done a number of these nights for a number of different clubs. I love when it means something.”

Then, with his head still down, Fifita breaks: “I don’t know what to say … I’m that nervous.’’

And then, if only briefly, Fifita lifts his eyes from the floorboards and says: “I can’t speak highly enough about the guy next to me.

“Within this playing group, we all know what Matty does.

“Me and Matty, before a game, I always said it: ‘You get me in D (defence) and I’ll get you in attack.

“He is the one bloke you want to start with.’’

Prior will make his debut in Game II in Sydney. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Not Lewis. Not Gallen. Not Holmes. Not Maloney. Matt Prior.

Which is why the Prior story is so fitting ahead of tomorrow night. In the same front-row jumper Fifita wore last year, Prior will make his NSW Origin debut against Queensland.

At 31, he will become the fourth-oldest Blue in history.

To everyone else, it’s a shock. Ryan James is the hard-luck story.

But to the people in the trenches with him, the former Thirroul Butcher is the one player they can’t live without.

“I love him — he’s made for Origin,’’ former NSW forward and Sharks teammate Luke Lewis said this week.

“At Cronulla, I literally get nervous when I hear Matty may not play because of an injury — he’s just so consistent and dependable.’’

At a time where the list management of your club roster is critical to success, Prior’s regard as a player is no more evident than in Sharks coach Shane Flanagan’s spreadsheets.

Of the current 30-man squad at Cronulla, only three players are contracted through until 2020 — promising hooker Jayden Brailey, playmaker Chad Townsend and Prior.

Not so long ago, Prior’s future in the game had reached a crossroads. “I was worried it was going to pass me by,’’ Prior said.

Unfit due to a meniscus injury in his knee in 2014, Prior languished in a combined Sharks-Storm NSW Cup side.

He wasn’t even in the starting side, seen as a back-up forward to George Rose and Dayne Weston.

“I started the year playing first-grade,” Prior said. “But in pre-season, I had a meniscus tear in my knee.

“I didn’t get it cleaned out, so I was a bit behind the whole season.

“I was playing terrible for the Sharks. I was unfit and so I got my clean-out in the middle of the season.

“After that, I told myself if I’m going to keep doing this (playing rugby league), I’m going to have to get stuck in and get back to being 100 per cent fit.

“I had to make a commitment to keep going.

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“Pretty much after that moment, I started ripping into my training and getting into extras.

“I would get on that back field at Cronulla and do whatever I could to try and gain a bit of fitness and confidence.

“Ever since then, my commitment has gone through the roof.’’

A keen fisherman and surfer, Prior is a deep thinker who can sip coffee and laugh with the boys, but is equally comfortable on his own.

His modesty belies the headline appeal that other players would receive from the dreamy achievement of premiership rings with St George-Illawarra (2010) and Cronulla (2016).

The Sharks’ prop has been in strong form throughout the 2018 season. (Photo by Tony Feder/Getty Images)

But his teammates — and perhaps NSW coach Brad Fittler — know what the outsiders don’t. “If you play against him, you may not know what makes Matty special,’’ Fifita told The Saturday Telegraph yesterday.

“But to his teammates, you know exactly why. That’s what the NSW players and everyone will learn on Sunday night.

“He’s been our secret and I’m glad Matty is now being shared with others.

“I hope he gets to wear No. 10 because there’s not another player I would want to wear the jumper I wore last year.

“It’s his jumper now. And you bet he deserves it.’’

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Originally published as Andrew Fifita’s Cronulla presentation speech to Matt Prior shows why he’s made for Origin