They’ve played Test football together, but for Morris twins Brett and Josh, the pinnacle of countless hours of backyard footy was always State of Origin.
Now those games of make believe will become reality, the backyard replaced by a jam-packed Suncorp Stadium after the siblings were for the first time named in the same NSW side to play in next week’s series decider.
With Canterbury centre Josh having left Brett at St George Illawarra ahead of the 2009 NRL season, representative games are now the only time the brothers can be teammates.
It makes Wednesday week’s already highly anticipated clash even bigger for the sons of former NSW winger Steve ‘Slippery’ Morris.
“It’s an awesome feeling … there haven’t been too many opportunities in the past couple of years where we’ve got to play together,” Josh said.
“Obviously playing for Australia is a very great honour and one we hold in high regard but when you play backyard footy when the Origins were on we always used to play against each other.
“To be alongside one another in a Blues jumper is something we’re going to remember for the rest of our lives.”
They will become the first set of twins to play for NSW, with Queensland’s Kerrod and Kevin Walters the only other Origin twins.
And if Glenn Stewart can overcome his knee injury to play alongside Brett, it will be the first time any Origin side has featured two sets of brothers.
Called in as 19th man for the opening two games of the series, Brett expected to perform a similar role for the series finale.
It will be his sixth Origin appearance, but given the magnitude of the game and familiar face by his side, none will have been bigger.
“I didn’t (give myself much hope), I thought I’d probably be coming in later in the week as a standby,” Brett said.
“But to get the call from Ricky (coach Ricky Stuart) was a huge surprise to me.
“I was very excited and I couldn’t answer quick enough when I saw his name, so I’m very excited and hopefully I can do well for the boys.”
There will be no room for sentiment on Suncorp Stadium however, with Brett assigned the task of stopping the Queensland left edge of Greg Inglis and Darius Boyd – who troubled Akuila Uate so much in the opening two games that Stuart said he was left with little option but to drop the Newcastle flyer.