NSW were raging favourite before the 1995 Origin series. But as captain Trevor Gillmeister recalls, the Maroons had a secret weapon.
As part of a series of first-person pieces by Origin greats, Gillmeister gives his view on the memorable series in which Paul Vautin's rank underdogs shocked the rugby league world. This article originally appeared in Rugby League Week's Heroes of Origin magazine in 2012.
Trevor Gillmeister: My axe to grind
Being named captain for the 1995 series was the pinnacle of my career, I was very proud of that and it meant a lot to my family as well.
Because of Super League, the Broncos players weren't chosen, and coming into camp everyone was apprehensive because we didn't have much to pick from. That all disappeared on day one. It was an unbelievable feeling.
Paul "Fatty" Vautin did a great job as coach and having Chris "Choppy" Close and manager Dick "Tosser" Turner along to help him meant it was back to old-school teamwork.
In the first meeting, Fatty asked Choppy to tell the team what it meant to him to play for Queensland for the first time. He got about three words in and couldn't talk any more.
He was choking up. You could hear a pin drop and everyone knew how much Origin meant to the old guys.
We had about nine players making debuts but I recall we still had more Origin games between us than the Blues thanks to Gary Larson, Mark Coyne, Billy Moore and myself.
Across the board we were very inexperienced but we made up for that with attitude.
We got on like a house on fire - no egos, no one felt they were better than anyone else. We had a great time off the field together and when it came to the footy, we just ripped in.
Fatty's a very smart man and he knew there could have been a danger to over-coach the players so he took us back to basics: winning for your mate, bleeding for the bloke beside you.
That series was definitely more about passion than tactics. NSW were odds-on every game, they had 12 Kangaroos, we had none, but we unearthed some stars.
In the second game I got stood on and got a cut on the inside of my leg. It wasn't bad enough to require stitches and I didn't give it another thought - I just went back to my club. But when we came back into camp for game three it started to give me curry.
The doctor - Roy Saunders - seemed to think some dirt or fertiliser got in there and I got blood poisoning. He thought it was best to put me on an antibiotic drip to speed up the healing and I was still hooked up on the day of the game.
I had to make a decision at 4.30pm. Tosser, Choppy and Fatty were in my room.
Tosser asked the doc what could happen to me and he said: "The poison could go through his blood, go through his system and he could die."
I said, "Geez that's a bit extreme!" I thought it was all over the top - still do - and I wasn't going to let anything keep me from trying to finish off that series 3-0. I know it couldn't happen these days, the world we live in with the litigation and rules.
Look, I knew we were going to win again. Everyone says to me, "Yeah you always say that, because you shouldn't be playing unless you think that way", but I knew it because our blokes were jumping out of their skins.
I don't want to be disrespectful but if it had have been a five-game series we would have won 5-0.
Any series win is fantastic and I won a few, including my first. But this one is the highlight, first because we were rated no chance and then because I did it with some great mates.
We had a 10-year reunion in 2005 and everyone made it. Brett Dallas came back from England for it. No matter what happens in my life, I know I'll always have those blokes to call on.
- as told to Tony Harper
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