Young Country-City players learn from the best

True Blues with 90 Origin games experience between them were on hand with Westpac NSW Blues head coach Brad Fittler to put the next generation of representative players through their paces at the NSWRL Centre of Excellence (COE) this week.

Fittler called in some of the members of his Origin “brains trust” in Andrew Johns (23 games), Craig Wing (12), Paul McGregor (14), Steve Menzies (20) and Danny Buderus (21)  to complete drills and offer technique tips to members of the CABE NSW Country and City Under 16s and Under 18s ahead of their annual matches on Saturday at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium.

Usually traditional foes, more than 70 players from both the maroon-and-gold of Country and blue-and-gold of City trained together in groups of forwards, backs and spine players with a True Blue legend to soak up some knowledge from those highly-skilled representative players.

Fittler addressed them as one group in the COE gymnasium, reminding them that this was where the State of Origin teams trained and learned about NSW Blues history.

A man who played 31 Origins, to remain the most-decorated Blue still, told the Under 16s and Under 18s there were a few basic steps to enjoying being a footballer.

“Practise being a good player, and a reliable teammate,” Fittler said.

“If you do that, the footy will be the easy part.”

Fittler joined one group to run through some drills before moving around to observe Johns, Buderus, Wing, Menzies, and McGregor offering advice and working with the players.

“I remember when I was a kid in the same situation where you had to put yourself out there a bit, find friends, learn about other people,” Fittler said of the CABE Country-City camps.

“For a lot of these kids it would be the first time outside their own footy team or area. It’ll be a great experience and the level of coaching they’ve got here … they’ll remember this for a while.

“There are some big, strong guys out here – the game is in good hands.”

The Under 16s Country team is made up of players from the SLE Andrew Johns Cup and the City team from the UNE Harold Matthews Cup, while the Under 18s Country team is from the SLE Laurie Daley Cup and the City team the UNE SG Ball Cup.

The schedule for Saturday 6 May at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium is:

11am: CABE Under 16s Country v City
12.35pm: CABE Under 18s Country v City 
2.20pm: CABE Country v City Men’s

The women’s Under 17s and Under 19s will be played on Sunday 7 May.

All games will be live-streamed on NSWRL TV on the NSWRL Facebook page.