State of Origin: The NSW heavyweights putting their hands up for Suncorp decider
Zac Lomax has wrestled and rolled with UFC light-heavyweight Jimmy Crute and held his own with Alex Volkanovski - so how does he stack up against the ranks of NSW’s Origin enforcers.
He’s heading to The Cauldron but he could’ve easily been in The Cage.
Before NSW State of Origin star Zac Lomax signed a four-year deal to join Parramatta in April, it can be revealed he was seriously considering swapping the boots for the gloves.
And he had one of the biggest names in the business backing him in.
“I’ve done a lot of training with him, and he’s got a lot of potential as a fighter – he could go far,” UFC superstar Alex Volkanovski told this masthead.
“He loves it, he’s a natural athlete and just picks things up so fast, and I know he was thinking, ‘Could I do this?’”
Lomax hasn’t just been hitting the pads, either.
He’s wrestled and rolled with UFC light-heavyweight Jimmy Crute, Jiu Jitsu master Craig Jones and held his own in every session at Volkanovski’s Freestyle Fight Gym in Windang.
“He gets in the gym and gets stuck in, and he’s been doing it for a year or two,” Volkanovski said. “I think he loves the idea of everything being on him.
“You don’t have to rely on anyone else, and that’s what I loved about going from rugby league to MMA too. There’s no one else to blame.”
At 94kg, Lomax could have fought at light-heavyweight in MMA – or middleweight (83.9kg) with a weight cut – but Volkanovski says he made the right decision staying in rugby league.
“He’s absolutely killing it, just look at the year he’s having,” he said.
“He loves the fighting, but he’s already got it made in footy and I know he’s grateful to be playing.”
Lomax won’t be the only Blues star that can put his hands up when they run out in front of a rabid Suncorp Stadium crowd on Wednesday.
The Blues haven’t won a decider in Brisbane since 2005, when a flashy Andrew Johns guided them to a dominant 32-10 victory over the Maroons.
But what the 2024 side lack in brilliance, they make up for in fight.
From a centre training with a legendary Australian boxer, to a fullback with a past in the ring, three front-rowers who just want a fight, a trio of best friends that consider themselves ninja turtles, or even a winger who has taken on the best UFC has to offer.
Madge may just have a method to his madness.
SPENCER LENIU
And this guy may just share the same ideology as his coach.
Interchange front-rower Spencer Leniu may not have the training like others on this list, but has made no secret of his intentions for his first decider in the Origin arena.
“One to 17, any of them can get it,” Leniu said.
Expecting a hostile crowd to deliver more boos than cheers, Leniu is the type of player that feeds off a hellish atmosphere. The more fuel they pour in, the more it revs him up.
“Boos or cheers, any bit of noise feeds my motivation,” he said.
“The boos will probably feed it a bit more to be honest, so it’s going to be a really interesting game for them.”
While history is not in favour of the Blues as they look to win only their second decider at Suncorp since Origin’s inception in 1982, Leniu refuses to let the past dictate his future.
“At school I sucked at history so I didn’t even know that stat,” Leniu said.
“We aren’t using those stats as fear.”
BRADMAN BEST
Bradman Best made headlines last weekend after the hard launch of his new relationship with the daughter of boxing icon Jeff Fenech.
But the father-boyfriend bond goes further than the dinner table.
Fenech and Best have exchanged in training sessions which showed the Blues centre has a different kind of strike to the one fans see on the field.
“Obviously it’s (boxing) in his blood because when he was hitting the pads it was like I was training somebody who has actually had fights before,” Fenech said.
Best, whose boxing background starts and stops at a mock No Limit faceoff with Adam Elliott, impressed the former world champion so much that a fight isn’t beyond his limits.
“I put him through a couple of the sessions and was extremely impressed,” he said.
While Best’s Origin selection brought great joy to Fenech and his family, the 60-year-old admitted it has gotten in the way of plans for more sessions.
For Best, his relationship with Fenech may come as a result of his new girlfriend, but the Knights centre views the extra work with the boxing legend a blessing to his own career.
“It’s pretty special to see what he did in his sport and now I can pick his brain and ask him questions because he has been there and done it all at the highest level,” Best said.
Coming up against Knights teammate Dane Gagai, Best couldn’t confirm whether he would be demonstrating his new boxing skills, but insisted fans should “wait and see.”
JAROME LUAI, STEPHEN CRICHTON AND BRIAN TO’O
These three are more crime fighters than combat ones.
While it initially started as a joke between To’o and Crichton, the three players have since become attached to their headgears and won’t take the field without them.
Crichton started wearing his headgear after a brutal split in his ear following a collision with Dale Finucane in 2022, but it didn’t take long to see another pop up on the field.
“It was mainly to muck around with him, but also his last year (at the Panthers) so I wanted to play alongside him, both wearing headgears,” To’o said.
It’s a tradition he has continued even after Crichton swapped Penrith for Belmore.
“It’s because I miss him to be honest,” he said.
“It’s a good memory to have, every time I put it on it reminds me of him.”
Luai watched To’o and Crichton start the trend and didn’t want to miss out on the fun.
“The boys came up with the Ninja Turtles and I wanted to be a part of the gang,” Luai said.
Although a new look for him in the NRL, Luai used to wear a headgear while playing junior footy, but chose to take it off as he was “trying to look cool.”
“I think I got my hair pulled three weeks ago, but we got two points for it so we will take it,” he said.
MITCH BARNETT
Fans haven’t seen Mitch Barnett throw punches, yet. But the fiery Warriors enforcer has them believing he isn’t opposed to it.
Barnett revealed earlier this series that his favourite Origin moment was the infamous brawl between Paul Gallen and Nate Myles in 2013 that forever changed the game.
“Paul Gallen one. Left, right, goodnight,” Barnett said.
DYLAN EDWARDS
He doesn’t look like much of a fighter, but Edwards unlike others in the team actually has stepped into the ring before.
Up in his home town of Dorrigo a young Edwards competed in an amateur boxing competition dubbed the ‘Cinderella Man Tournament.’
Dorrigo local Greg Darby told Nine newspapers in 2022 that Edwards was regarded as a ‘smart boxer’ and a ‘good counter puncher.’
PAYNE HAAS
Since Gallen and Myles threw down all those years ago we haven’t seen many punches thrown in the NRL. Except for Payne Haas.
The 2020 series saw the now iconic shot of Haas proving it really is state against state, mate against mate, landing a couple of right hands on his long-time friend Tino Fa’asuamaleaui.
It started with a push and shove and ended in a stint in the sin bin, Haas trying to take the fight to the sideline, and one destroyed Blues jersey.
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