Papa urges Milford to show ‘mongrel’
HOPEFULLY WE CAN GET THAT MONGREL SIDE OUT OF HIM ... JOSH PAPALII
MAROONS “bodyguard” Josh Papalii says Anthony Milford needs to channel his inner mongrel during his State of Origin debut as Queensland gets its first glimpse of a future without Johnathan Thurston.
Papalii, who has known Milford since their junior days and shared a house with him when the pair moved to Canberra, will play a huge part in his mate’s first game, tasked with stopping the hulking Blues forwards that will target the Maroons No.6.
But he said the usually shy 22-year-old also needed to fire up and reflect his teammates’ view he was up to the job. While Milford is quiet, Papalii has known him for more than a decade and said there was another side to the man who will step into Thurston’s massive shoes.
“He’s obviously pretty cheeky but he’s pretty classy as well, he holds himself together well and he’s pretty confident as a player but pretty shy at times,” Papalii said.
“Hopefully we can get that mongrel side out of him on Wednesday night and hopefully he can put a bit of magic on Wednesday.”
But has Papalii ever seen Milford in “mongrel mode”? “No I haven’t, I’m still waiting for it,” he said.
“But obviously the players need that from him.”
Papalii has been providing plenty of guidance to Milford in camp at Sanctuary Cove but believes his little mate will be fine come Wednesday night -as long as he hasn’t played in the game in his head before he takes the field.
“Obviously there’s a bit of nerves there but every player gets that before an Origin.
“He’s come to my room every night and keeps talking about the game and I had to remind him that the game’s next week.
“But I think he’s just excited to play and I can’t wait to run out next to him.”
Celebrating that boyhood dream with a mate won’t take Papalii’s focus off his main job – which is not all about babysitting Milford.
“I’ve obviously got to assess my job as well,” he said.
“One of my jobs is to try and get to those big runners that are going to be targeting Milford there. But we’ve got 17 players we need to do the job for as well.”
That was evident yesterday when the Maroons completed a taxing opposed session in their final major hitout before the game.
“That was obviously a big session today, a bit longer than usual but when you’ve got two new guys in the team you have to simplify things down a bit,” he said.
“But we’re looking pretty sharp and hopefully we can turn up on Wednesday and do the job. There’s a lot of pressure on us to perform for the state.”