25,000 run metres and 200 litres of cola: The crazy numbers behind Brian To’o

Brian To’o is something of a medical marvel. He’s certainly a rugby league one.

“And an inspiration to short, stocky islanders everywhere,” Jarome Luai grins.

“That low centre of gravity, it’s like a superpower for him.“

In a game built above all on crashing headlong into the opposition as hard and often as possible, can you name a winger crafted so uniquely perfect to do so?

In the modern game, Matt Utai, Taniela Tuiaki and Akuila Uate come to mind as wide men similarly short in stature and big on impact, but none were as effective or well-rounded as To’o.

Wendell Sailor and Lote Tuqiri were elite finishers built like front-row forwards capable of 11-second 100m sprint times. But not even their work rates compare to the Panthers flyer.

A winger like no other: Brian To’o.Credit: Getty Images

Name any player, period, who does what To’o does – all fuelled by a 2000-calorie game-day breakfast and 200 litres of Coke Zero a month.

Or one who has spent the past two Origin build-ups unable to train due to injury – prompting his wife Moesha to put him on a dancing ban – yet NSW officials are as relaxed as ever about an ability to play the house down.

With all the grace of a bowling ball hurled down an alley using both hands, To’o has now run for the best part of 25,000 metres with ball in hand at NRL level.

The overwhelming majority of that has been straight into defenders, defenders who line up with anywhere between a 10-20 centimetre height advantage over the NSW and Penrith flyer.

Almost 8000 of those metres have been the toughest of any in the game – post-contact. After absorbing whatever 200-300 kilos of multiple defenders will throw his way, To’o is without peer when it comes to shoving, shunting and shifting his way to his hands and knees for a quick play-the-ball.

And rugby league logic falls a tad short explaining exactly how he does it.

To’o is quick, but not abnormally so. At 97kg, he hits the average weight of an NRL winger in 2025.

The 182cm he is listed as standing on the NRL website is a noticeable jump from the 174cm he was profiled at in 2019. Short of a healthy mid-20s growth spurt, no-one is willing to explain why.

Meantime, plenty of players boast power-packed backsides and glute muscles. Granted, To’o’s tree stump legs (tree trunks would be a stretch) are less commonly found.

“But it’s not like he puts up big numbers in the gym with them,” NSW and Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards says.

“And he doesn’t blow you away in fitness drills or during pre-season testing,” skipper Isaah Yeo muses.

“But then there’s not many blokes that can have 25 carries a game and do what he does. I feel like a lot of teams are trying to bring in wingers now that have really good yardage carries like Bizza.

“But I just don’t know if anyone can do it as consistently as what he does. And the bigger the occasion, Origin or grand finals, he does it better and better, and has been doing it for five or six years now.”

To’o offers a shrug, a grin and a “shout out to all my short kings, my short brothers out there” when asked the well-worn question.

How exactly do you not only survive, but thrive, in a modern-day game of giants and controlled violence?

“It’s a weird one, but I swear, I used to be really skinny and fast,” he says. “I didn’t really have much strength or leg drive until I was 18 or 19.”

So you locked yourself in the gym and tied yourself to the leg press?

“No, I think I was just eating. And even when I got stronger, I didn’t kick on with it until I worked out how to use it, either.

“Making contact, changing direction and using my [leg] drive… I used to always have that mindset of just running at the biggest player and then whatever happens, happens.

“Thank God I never ended up in hospital, I’m still here living and I always kind of love that challenge too, that little disadvantage that other players have being taller than me.”

Teenage years spent flipping back and forth on the family trampoline – “best Christmas present ever” – played their part in To’o’s spring-loaded diving tries and attempts to match aerial specialists like Queensland’s Xavier Coates.

Jarome Luai, Stephen Crichton and Spencer Leniu wait for pal Brian To’o at a Perth cafe with five cans of Coke Zero and a caramel latte on Origin 2 game day.

Every Origin since To’o’s 2021 debut has been preceded by concern the Blues winger will be targeted under the high ball. Coates’s game one flight at Suncorp Stadium – which saw To’o controversially sinbinned for tackling him in the air – was one of the few occasions it has actually happened.

All up, To’o has run for close to 3000 metres in 14 straight Origin appearances, with 1053 of those coming after contact. Both tallies are the most of any NSW player in that time.

His 10 tries are already closing fast on the all-time Blues record of 11 held by Josh Addo-Carr (15 games), Michael O’Connor (19 games) and Jarryd Hayne (23 games).

To’o has barely trained leading into Wednesday’s decider after suffering a grade 2 lateral ligament tear in his knee against Canterbury almost two weeks ago.

Given he was the Blues best player in Origin II having been similarly restricted by a hamstring injury, To’o and NSW players and staff have insisted all week that he will be right to play.

To’o’s wife has also insisted his hamstring issues this year have been caused by his dancing – flips, splits and all.

“So now I’m pretty much banned until the off-season.”

And when it comes to pulling off things he really shouldn’t be able to, To’o and his teammates regularly circle back to the rugby league intangibles that can’t be measured in kilos and centimetres, G-force or post-contact metres.

Penrith players can trace To’o’s ability to play busted back to famed tales of him walking to training on a broken leg without realising it when he was 17, and hospitalising himself for four days after collapsing during pre-season sandhill runs.

“He’s so powerful and he’s such a character,” Yeo says. “I mean, his diet is just awful. But more than most, I think he just wants to perform for his teammates. He doesn’t want to let anyone down and he just seems to be able to push through pain.”

Luai adds: “He’s the smallest dude with the biggest heart,” Luai says.

“Yeah, he’s got the legs but I think the power he has comes from the love for his teammates and his competitiveness. No matter who he’s up against, no matter how much bigger a defender or an attacker is than him, he just puts himself in the right position to win.”

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