The Rabbitohs captain spent six weeks on the sidelines injured, but all NSW coach Michael Maguire needed was to watch his first game back last week to pick him for Origin II.
“I met him as a student basically, as a teenager, and you could tell straight away on top of the talent there was just a great mindset,” Fittler says. “He was really humble, hard-working, just all the things you want in your leaders.”At the time, Fittler was working with NSW Rugby League in its development pathways program, and coaching the under 16s and under 18s Origin teams.
“The other thing he does so well is he has the ability to put the team first, constantly. He does it at South Sydney, does it for NSW and for Australia,” Fittler says. “If you’re looking for leadership, you just look at him.”It’s what his teammates see too. NSW five-eighth Jarome Luai couldn’t speak highly enough of his Origin teammate ahead of game two at the MCG on Wednesday night.
Murray was the obvious pick for new Blues coach Michael Maguire too, and is named to start at lock ahead of Yeo. One game back from injury was all Maguire needed to see to put Murray in his team, but the two had been in conversation long before Maguire picked his squad for game one, with the incoming coach eager to rekindle the relationship they had when Murray started at the Rabbitohs back in 2015.“We were in dialogue a fair bit,” Murray says.
“He’s physical and his attributes allow him to create problems for the opposition, and ultimately, that’s why he gets picked, but who he is as a teammate pushes him to the top of the tree as well, and he’s the vice-captain of Australia, so he was always going to be an immediate selection for NSW when he was available.”Murray knows it, too, even if he’s too modest to say it. With a little encouragement, he will offer up why he thinks he always ends up in a Blues jersey.
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