REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Wednesday, June 13, 2007

LUKE Bailey’s Origin secret leaked out in icy Wollongong.

No matter how many times ‘Bull’ charged into the Queensland defensive line, no matter how many times he smashed a cane toad ball carrier, there was a slice of his heart that would be forever Maroon.

His partner, Rebecca Condello, shook her head and looked across at the couple’s bouncing baby boy, six-monthold Hudson.

“We are all Blue, except for Hudson,” she says. “He’s a Queenslander.”

Rebecca and their two children, Hudson and two-anda-half-year-old Amarli, were deep in Blues territory, at her parents’ house in Wollongong.

They left home on the Gold Coast for the State of Origin Round Two game at Telstra Stadium.

Luke, co-captain of the Gold Coast Titans, would come off the bench as NSW attempted to square the ledger after the Maroons drew first blood at Suncorp.

However, his little ‘Queensland mascot’ wouldn’t be on the sideline. “I’ll be at the game, but no, Hudson and Amarli will be staying with my mum, Jenny,” said Rebecca.

“Of course the whole family is behind Luke and NSW, but things could get a little interesting when Hudson grows up and starts to stir us about being a Queenslander.”

The couple moved to the Coast to link with the Titans in 2006, after Luke had spent seven seasons as a St George Illawarra Dragons first-grader.

“When we came up I still had eight weeks to go, so we had no choice but to have Hudson in a hospital up here,” said Rebecca.