John Strange barely kept it together when tuning in via Zoom to watch his son Ethan receive his first NSW Origin jersey on Tuesday.
Strange was 800km away at Kingscliff, on the NSW far North Coast, finalising preparations with the Blues’ women’s team as they chase an historic maiden series clean-sweep against Queensland on Thursday night.
The respected women’s coach will board a flight from the Gold Coast to Sydney on Wednesday morning, watch his 21-year-old boy start at five-eighth for the Blues in front of 80,000 fans at Accor Stadium that night, then board the 7am flight back to Coolangatta in time for the NSW women’s team’s game-day walk.
“I kept it together at the jersey presentation, but only because Ethan’s mum Adele did all the talking,” John said.
“This will be such a special moment. About 18 months ago, he had opportunities to represent New Zealand.
“When I sat down and asked him what he wanted to do, he said, ‘dad, the only jersey I want to wear is the NSW jersey’.
“Knowing this night is special to him makes it special for me.
“When Ethan was a kid, Origin night was one of the few times a year he saw the passion come out in me as a fan. He’d watch me watching NSW and yelling at the TV.
“It quickly became ingrained in him that Origin games were more important than any other.”
Raiders players were certainly overjoyed to see Strange join Hudson Young in the sky blue, with hooker Tom Starling, a former roommate of Strange, declaring: “His running game will leave Queensland in two minds straight away. And having ‘Huddo’ will also be a massive help for him. They spent all of last season on the same edge.
“All the boys on WhatsApp were so excited, and while I don’t want to speak on ‘Papa’s’ [Queensland and Canberra legend Josh Papalii] behalf, I think he might be going for NSW, especially with two of our players there.”
Papalii sighed when told about Starling’s comments. “I’m all for Queensland, but I’m also happy to support our boys. It’s awesome for the club to have the two of them there,” he said.
“Strangey loves defending, he loves putting shots on, and he plays with the same aggression when he has the ball. I’m pretty excited to see him play. We know what ‘Huddo’ can do, but for Strangey to get the call-up, it’s exciting times for him and NSW.”
Canberra coach Ricky Stuart famously – and correctly – declared Strange would go on to make the Ashes tour with the Kangaroos last year. He also tipped Strange to play Origin football in the next year or two, to which he told this masthead on Monday night: “I love him as a bloke, and the timing for him is right. He’s got a massive career ahead of him. You could give him two months to prepare for an Origin game or two hours, it wouldn’t worry him.”
The time away on the Roo tour helped Strange get to know NSW halfback Nathan Cleary.
Strange grew up on the Central Coast, and it is fitting he joined the Raiders given he is arguably the only player in the NRL with viking heritage – his great, great, great, great, great-grandfather, John Thompson, was Norwegian.
