RETURN TO MAROON WORKS FOR STEWART
HAMISH Stewart wore a second-hand Reds jersey everywhere as a kid in Toowoomba.
The “Q” logo was cool but what he really loved was the colour ... maroon.
It may seem like a negligible tweak to many and nothing at all related to onfield performance yet speak to those who feel the fabric. It does make a difference.
“As a young fella, I got a hand-me-down jersey from my brother Alistair and you couldn’t get it off me whether I was working around the farm or heading into town,” Bond University’s Stewart said.
“Maroon is just Queensland’s colour.”
It’s as simple and as strong as that.
After wearing a blood-red jersey for most of the past decade, the Queensland Reds are back in traditional maroon jumpers for another shot at a Super Rugby resurgence.
They are back in the colour that Paul McLean and Michael Lynagh wore throughout their decorated careers as great Queensland flyhalves.
It’s the colour that Elton Flatley and Quade Cooper wore too when the marketing and merchandising boffins weren’t running amok with stripes, blue trims, white bands, changing the colour of their shorts and, finally, going full-on red.
It’s way too early to pin “the next great Queensland No.10” tag on Stewart.
The elite quartet just mentioned were natural No.10s from the cradle.
Stewart, at 20, is still learning his craft after starting life as a schoolboy flanker and will steer an ambitious young squad with an average age of just 23.
He is not yet a complete general like Lynagh or McLean or the freakish conjurer that Cooper was.
–He is most like a young Flatley because he is fearless with his front-on tackling, a sponge for learning and adept at underplaying his own hand until the time is right for a sharp run. Stewart has enjoyed an 18-game apprenticeship under Cooper and Jono Lance during the past two seasons to finally reach the point where the reins as playmaker are firmly in his hands for Friday week’s opener against the Highlanders in Dunedin.