Can you turn the nicest guy in rugby league into an Origin captain?

In December 2022, Jake Trbojevic earned himself theoretical recruitment to the army. Anthony Seibold, fresh in Manly’s coaching chair and keen to rebuild some collective resilience in the aftermath of Des Hasler’s sacking, chaperoned his new squad out to a deserted spot in the NSW bush near Mudgee and handed them over to former Special Forces commanders.

What followed was a three-day boot camp that drove the players to exhaustion. They completed endurance strength activities designed to break them down physically, hiked carrying 20kg packs and 20-litre water jerry cans, were tested by cognitive-based challenges like orienteering while sleep- and food-deprived, and dragged a five-tonne truck half a kilometre.

Manly players drag a five-tonne truck, loaded with another two tonnes of equipment, through the bush near Mudgee.Credit: Cameron Doyle

After it was done - once the men had hit what they thought was their ceiling and then smashed through it - the commanders voted for the player they believed displayed the attributes required to make the cut as a real-life soldier.

“And they said, hands down, Jake Trbojevic was the man of the camp,” says Seibold. “They said if he was part of selection then he would be recruited. That’s him. He’s just one of those guys who just deals with adversity. He’s just got that mental toughness, and that’s pretty much what they saw there.

“They didn’t know a whole heap about footy, and they didn’t know too much about Jake and his story. But for them to identify him probably just shows what we see in him - and what the NSW selectors have seen in him.”

At the time, Sea Eagles captain Daly Cherry-Evans said he was glad to have completed one of the notorious camps “but if there’s another one I might retire”. That is retrospectively enlightening, given Cherry-Evans is widely accepted as Queensland’s established State of Origin captain while the rugby league world appeared so perplexed over Trbojevic’s appointment as his club teammate’s NSW counterpart.

One element was the shock that Michael Maguire had axed James Tedesco, the Blues’ skipper since 2020. But the consensus also seemed to be that Penrith co-captain Isaah Yeo was the obvious alternative. Maguire called Yeo “a born leader” and duly made him vice-captain. As far as Trbojevic goes, apart from standing in as Manly captain a handful of times, the 30-year-old’s only experience came as a teenager when he skippered the Mona Vale Raiders.

It was more than that, though. Trbojevic is just so … nice? Can a front-rower who apparently whispers “sorry” to opponents he tackles too hard also have the gravel to galvanise a team? Is rugby league’s Guy Smiley, universally adored for his trademark thumbs-up, capable of giving a thumbs-down if necessary? More pertinently, perhaps, does he even need to be?

Jake Trbojevic with his brother Tom and a signature thumbs-up after a victory in Mudgee in 2021.

Pat Cummins would have experienced a similar reaction when he was named Australian Test captain in 2021. Taking into account the differences between the two sports, including questions around whether a fast bowler could also see the full game-management picture, Cummins was also more wholesome than his predecessors.

In some ways, given Sandpapergate and Tim Paine’s sudden departure amid a sexting scandal, this was manna from heaven. But a cleanskin climate change advocate burdened with such heavy historical baggage on the eve of a partisan Ashes series was also viewed as somewhat unorthodox.

By November of last year, Cummins had led Australia to the World Test Championship, two retentions of the Ashes urn and the ICC World Cup trophy. Of his 43 matches as captain, the 31-year-old has lost only nine - six Tests and three ODIs. Cummins may never attain the tactical nous of Ricky Ponting, but does it matter if Ponting describes his leadership as “almost faultless”?

Pat Cummins was seen as an unorthodox choice for the Australian Test captaincy but has proven himself.Credit: Getty

Captaining a team in any sport is a delicate remit. Not quite a coach; more a first among equals. It is a role tempered by myriad variables: the make-up and culture of the squad, its personalities, past results, present and future expectations, the state of the other lot (in this case, Queensland).

There’s also the desired direction of the coach to consider. “Someone like Jake, he represents where I want to start on our journey with the team,” Maguire said on Monday, hours after dropping his captaincy bombshell.

“I’ve watched Jake for such a long period of time and he wears his heart on his sleeve, and I think that resonates with our people in NSW … I can’t wait to sit next to him, he’ll probably show emotion at times, and he’s a character. And I want that in my captain, to show people what this jersey really means.”

It feels pertinent that Maguire spent much of that press conference emphasising the more emotive elements of Origin. Ideology has consistently made the Maroons more than the sum of their parts, and Billy Slater and the coaches before him have been good at tapping into the ideals and mythology of the jersey. It is why Queensland thrive on the underdog tag (even when they are not underdogs) and emerge victorious from tight games.

This context makes Trbojevic’s installation all the more interesting and suggests reputation does not always accurately reflect the full picture. The Sea Eagles’ The Manly Way documentary shows glimpses of his capacity for talking to teammates in huddles and meetings and communicating clearly and with feeling.

“Sometimes his competitiveness probably gets lost because he is such a good person when people meet him or interview him or see him around the community,” Seibold says.

“He’s a very humble guy, but he’s one of the most fierce competitors that I’ve coached. I put him in the bracket along with guys like Sam Burgess for how hard they compete, and you underestimate him at your peril.”

In other words, he’s a nice guy until he crosses the white line. But a tough on-field competitor does not equate to grubby tactics, and Trbojevic himself does not feel bereft without a natural knack for getting under everyone’s skin.

“It’s not about that,” Trbojevic says. “It’s just about when you’re out there, you compete to the best of your ability in that 80 minutes. It’s not about being a grub. You do the best you can, you lead the best you can, and that’s all they can ask.”

There is a hint of new-captain naivety upon asking Trbojevic if he will feel comfortable, in the heat of a match, warning his fired-up wingers and front-rowers not to challenge something stupid. “I hadn’t thought about that,” he says. “I’ll have to work on that.”

He is, at least calm. If he played rugby for the All Blacks, Trbojevic would be a “blue head”. New Zealand’s national team define a “blue head” state as one in which a player can maintain control of emotions, clarity of consciousness and situational awareness, and thus avoid poor decision-making in high-pressure situations. They define a “red head” state as being tight, anxious, panicked and desperate.

A player can bring themselves out of the red and into the blue by breathing slowly and deliberately and perhaps using an external cue to reboot. Legendary former All Blacks captain Richie McCaw would apparently stamp his feet. His successor, Kieran Read, would stare at the farthest point in the stadium.

Prince Harry presents Richie McCaw with the Webb Ellis Cup after New Zealand’s 2015 Rugby World Cup final win over Australia at London’s Twickenham Stadium.Credit: Phil Walter

Trbojevic also displays some traits that are common to elite captains, according to Sam Walker’s 2016 book The Captain Class which profiles his 16 greatest sporting teams in history and identifies the counterintuitive leadership qualities of the men and women who led them.

Among them is Syd Coventry, who captained the Collingwood Magpies to four consecutive flags between 1927 and 1930, and Rechelle Hawkes, who led the Hockeyroos to three successive Olympic gold medals between 1988 and 2000. Then there’s Bill Russell (Boston Celtics), Ferenc Puskas (Hungary football team) and Mireya Luis (Cuban volleyball team).

McCaw is on the list, too, having captained New Zealand to the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cup wins. He did so after the All Blacks’ disastrous 2007 World Cup campaign, at which they lost their quarter-final to France and McCaw was accused of lacking inspiration and leadership.

It is difficult not to think about Trbojevic when reading the seven common traits: extreme doggedness and focus in competition; aggressive play that tests the limits of the rules; a willingness to do thankless jobs in the shadows; a low-key, practical, and democratic communication style; motivates others with passionate nonverbal displays; strong convictions and the courage to stand apart; ironclad emotional control.

Rechelle Hawkes celebrates as the Hockeyroos beat Argentina to the gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.Credit: Nick Falconer

Walker references the work of psychologist Carol Dweck, one of the world’s preeminent experts on the subject of how people, especially children, cope with challenge and difficulty. Dweck’s research finds that, contrary to common sense, a person’s self-confidence is not inspired by natural ability but reaction to failure. Applied to sport, it offers a possible explanation for how the best captains - while not the most talented athletes - often exceeded the accomplishments of those with greater gifts.

Their “skills and strategies improved in the face of difficulty”, Walker writes. “Because they viewed their abilities as malleable, and because they were more motivated by learning and improving than by appearing to be capable, they never lost faith.”

Trbojevic, while highly skilled to the tune of 16 Origin games, is also “very coachable”, according to Seibold, which implies a large capacity for continued learning. Retired former Blues skipper Boyd Cordner, who has been observing Trbojevic in NSW camp this week, added weight to this by saying “he’s nervous, but he’s super excited” and endorsed him as the best possible person to take over from Tedesco.

The other fascinating research cited by Walker is a 1913 experiment by French agricultural engineer, Maximilien Ringelmann which explored the dynamic of group effort. Ringelmann asked people to pull on a rope, both individually and in groups, and measured the force they exerted. The group, as expected, did exert more power collectively than they did alone. However, with each new person added, each individual pulled on the rope less hard than they did alone.

Social psychologists later called this phenomenon of putting in less effort when being judged as a group as “social loafing”. In the 1980s, researchers at Fordham University attempted to overcome social loafing by seeing whether one person shouting at a maximum effort could incite others to improve their performances. They grouped shouters in pairs and, before the experiment, told each that their partner was a high-effort performer. Both screamed as hard together as they had alone, suggesting that high effort - or even just the perception of high effort - is transferrable.

The moral of the story? If one player in a team is seen to be giving it their absolute all on the field, it can positively influence the way others in that team perform. “The thing with Jake is he’s remained so consistent, he gives you everything every week,” Trbojevic’s brother and Manly teammate Tom says. “And there’s nothing between his best game and his worst game.”

Trbojevic says he will “take a little bit from everyone” who has captained him, “but it’s not about changing to be like them, it’s just about being myself”. Paul Gallen, who captained the Blues for 16 of his 24 Origin games including the drought-breaking 2014 series, agreed that Trbojevic would lead the Blues in his own unique way.

“I remember when I first got named I had people saying ‘why don’t you ring so-and-so [to ask] about previous captains?’, and I didn’t want to,” Gallen says. “I just wanted to do my own thing, and I think that’s what he should do. Jake’s his own man; he’s going to be his own captain. His football ability and the way he works on the field is unquestionable.”

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