Brad Fittler backs team to create their own legacy in State of Origin decider
Ahead of this year’s State of Origin series, members of the unbeaten and unchanging NSW team of 1996 have written letters and recorded video messages to the current squad in a bid to inspire them to success.
“Mine was about that team,” said Brad Fittler, the Blues captain that year. “We came out of the division a year ago [because of the Super League war].
“This group was special for us because there is something unique about all three matches with the same players. There is also winning 3-0 and losing the year before.”
Thirty years later, Laurie Daley’s team is in a different position, approaching the decisive third game of the series at Suncorp Stadium on the back foot. Dramatic second half collapse in Melbourne last week.
There is performance Scrutiny over Daley’s decision-making intensifies and has led to calls for sweeping change for Brisbane.
But Fittler argues this year’s team has a chance to leave its own legacy, 30 years after the reunited Blues’ clean sheet win against Queensland in 1995, which famously won with a panel of so-called nobodies coached by Paul “Fatty” Vautin.
Andrew Johns has He described the 1996 series as the series in which he first fully grasped the State of Origin, According to Fittler, circumstances presented the 2026 Blues with the opportunity to seize the moment.
“I think they’re in a great position,” Fittler said at the launch of the NRL’s Beanies for Brain Cancer Tour on Tuesday.
“Everybody’s attacking them, they’re all being criticized. In times like these, I think Origin, the idea of representing your state, is reflected in the team. I think this is our time.”
As both player and coach, Fittler knows all too well the difficulty of determining the outcome of a match in Queensland.
During his six-year tenure at the Blues from 2018 to 2023, there were two, both capped by the Maroons, before Michael Maguire’s NSW won the series in Brisbane in 2024.
“It’s hard,” he said. “You won’t get any favors and you have to fight for everything. We fought in Melbourne but we didn’t fight long enough.”
As well as the Blues’ chances, the NRL’s partnership with the Mark Hughes Foundation to fight brain cancer is also invaluable to Fittler.
He worked for many years as a commentator on Nine, which owns this imprint, with the network’s former NRL boss Matt Callander. Person who was a planner of the Beanies Round for Brain Cancer and died of the disease in 2017 He is 46 years old.
Callander’s daughter Maddy works at Nine as a senior producer for the company’s sports coverage.
This is the 10th year of the tour, which raised funds through the purchase of beanies.
Perth Bears assistant coach Ben Gardiner, who lost his sister Sandra to brain cancer in 2023, told his family’s story at Tuesday’s launch in Sydney, as did Laura Clarke, whose husband Alex is the Wests Tigers’ senior athletic performance coach. He died due to a brain tumor in January.
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Chris Barrett is senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Southeast Asia correspondent for the Herald and The Age newspapers.Connect with: X or email.
