Paul Vautin has backed Queensland’s unlikely bunch of State of Origin rookies to repeat the heroics of his 1995 side and pull off the biggest interstate boilover in 25 years.
Vautin coached a Queensland team shorn of several key players during the Super League split in 1995 to a remarkable 3-0 series win.
This year’s campaign, which kicks off on Wednesday in Adelaide, has echoes of that series with the Maroons huge outsiders to avoid a third-straight Origin series loss.
Queensland will field at least eight debutants at the Adelaide Oval and could have as many as 12 when both states name their final 19-man squads later on Tuesday.
It’s the most new faces in a Maroons lineup since Wayne Bennett picked 10 debutants for game one of the 2001 series – a campaign which Queensland also ended up winning 2-1.
Injuries, retirements and suspension have ravaged the Maroons playing stocks, with several incumbent stars such as Kalyn Ponga, Moses Mbye and Michael Morgan all unavailable for the series.
Vautin, however, says the formula which he used with his famous ‘Fatty’s Nevilles’ can still apply to this year’s team.
“You don’t have to be the best players to win Origin,” Vautin told AAP.
“You don’t have to be the superstars. The fastest. The strongest.
“It comes from within and that’s what I got that team to believe in, to believe in themselves and each other.
“This NSW team’s full of superstars, as it was in 1995 … but it didn’t matter mate because we just got them and they just believed in themselves and just kept turning up.
“I’m confident. I don’t care how good New South Wales are or think they are. I’m confident that this Queensland team’s got the guts and intestinal fortitude to win.”
History is littered with such underdog effort from rookies, including the nucleus of the current Blues team who won the 2018 series with 11 debutants in Game I.
Both teams will hold their final training runs later on Tuesday, with Queensland winger Xavier Coates expected to get the all-clear to make his debut after scans on Monday revealed a shoulder injury wasn’t serious.
Blues superstar James Tedesco is also expected to be right to play in the series opener after training freely on Monday with just light strapping on his left knee.
Bennett is expected to make changes to the team named last week with Kurt Capewell widely tipped to debut in the centres alongside another Origin rookie in Brenko Lee.
Despite the injury concerns, Vautin said the opportunity to represent their state should be motivation enough for Queensland’s first-gamers against the Blues.
“Obviously there’s no Gene Miles and Mal Meningas around, and that’s why we’ve got Brenko Lee,” Vautin said.
“I mean, two or three years ago, he was flitting between the Gold Coast Titans and the Tweed Head Seagulls. For him to be in this Origin team is outstanding.
“He had a great year with the Melbourne Storm.
“A player like him will find something, he’ll just lift, and that’s just what we’ve got to do mate, just got to lift.”