NSW BIG MOUTHS, YOU WANT PIECE OF US
COBY Allen and his Burleigh Bears under-9 mates have a simple message to the ”lippy” NSW forwards targeting Gold Coast hardmen Jai Arrow, a Bears junior, and Jarrod Wallace in tonight’s State of Origin opener: “C’mon get through us first.”
“THOSE suckers, we’ll run them over like ants. They’re grubs. Smash ’em.”
These are the tough words the next generation of Queensland Maroons had for the cockroaches south of the border ahead of tonight’s State of Origin opener in Melbourne.
You see, the under-9s players from the Burleigh Bears Junior Rugby League Football Club aren’t happy with the way some NSW Blues players have been badmouthing the Queensland side, particularly former Burleigh junior and Origin debutant Jai Arrow.
Rookie Blues prop Reagan Campbell-Gillard appears to have assumed the mantle of public enemy No.1 from the likes of Andrew Fifita and Paul Gallen after saying he wanted to “kill some people” this Origin series.
Eight-year-old Coby Allen wanted to set the Blues straight after the threat put to fellow Burleigh Bears mate Arrow.
“There are way too many new players in the Blues team,” Coby said, taking aim specifically at Campbell-Gillard’s moustache.
“It’s weird. He looks like he’s French.”
Coby’s teammate Chase Harris showed no mercy, unloading on the whole Blues squad.
“We’re going to run over them like they’re rats … and ants … and grubby … they are just grubs,” he screamed.
Billy-J Hamilton said the never-say-die Queensland spirit would get the team over the line following a spate of injuries.
“We might have a few injured players but we’ll smash them,” he said.
Jai Eccles said he was looking forward to seeing his favourite player run out on to the MCG tonight.
“Jai Arrow is one of my favourite players, because he plays for the Titans,” he said.
“My favourite player used to be Jonathan Thurston but after he quit a little bit (retired from representative football) Jai’s my number one favourite and Thurston is number two.”
That was shortly before the team turned their attention to Burleigh Bears junior coaching director Dean Allen, tackling him to the ground because he is a lifelong NSW supporter and wearing a Blues jersey.
“They’re lunatics, they always give it to me, all the time, like ‘they’ve only won once since I was born’ and things like that, they’re always on to me,” Mr Allen said of the Blues only winning one Origin series since 2006.
But he said the banter, like weekend matches, was goodnatured and all about fun.
“Junior football can sometimes be far too serious. We want to make it fun and inclusive,” Mr Allen said.
“Like last weekend, one of the players had never scored before, so the team made sure he was in a support position and he ended up scoring two tries in one game.”
And what about spear tackles and “smashing” the opposition?
“The NRL is really promoting the Safeplay Code so now we teach the kids to tackle around the shorts, it’s all about making the game cleaner and safer,” he said.
WE’RE GOING TO RUN OVER THEM LIKE THEY’RE RATS … AND ANTS … AND GRUBBY … THEY ARE JUST GRUBS. BEARS JUNIOR CHASE HARRIS