It’s hard to argue with Liam Martin at the best of times.
Even when his eyes aren’t spinning like a slot machine and he’s charging into Queensland with enthusiasm that would make a southern-state retiree blush.
But when you consider the impact he and back-row partner Angus Crichton had on Origin last year, and prompt him with a question only slightly leading, the Blues’ resident maniac lights up like Christmas and New Year’s combined.
“Hands down, toughest job in the team,” Martin grins. “Front-rowers – they do plenty of work, but we have to make actual decisions. Outside backs – they’re not making tackles. We do all their work. We get the best of both worlds out there in the back row. Personally, I love it.”
For all the spotlight on star halves Nathan Cleary and Mitchell Moses leading into Wednesday night’s Origin opener, Crichton and Martin’s roles outside them could prove just as influential.
They were last year. Crichton was a deserving Wally Lewis medal winner as player of the series. Martin wasn’t too far behind as the pair bashed Maroons ball-runners and led the Blues’ kick-chase.
With ball in hand, the duo were just as relentless. Martin began the MCG masterclass that set up NSW’s come-from-behind series win when he sliced through Queensland from a Moses short ball.
But so often it was Crichton’s post-contact metres and quick play-the-balls on the opposite edge that delivered critical momentum for the Blues to work with.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson has long held the philosophy that back-rowers can shape and define a team’s entire attacking structure. Not for nothing: his three premierships came with Sonny Bill Williams and Boyd Cordner holding the Roosters’ edges as two of the best to ever do so in the modern game.
“Not just attacking structure, I think back-rowers hold the key to your defence as well,” Tricolours and NSW utility Connor Watson says.
“They’re that link between your middle and edge, and we’re very lucky at the Chooks and here in NSW that we’ve been blessed with some great back-rowers.
“The way our guys can get at [opposition] halves in attack and defence is massive. They’ll saddle up for work early in a set and then they’re obviously key in attacking the line, your back-rower is the one who is trying to hold up the three-man defender [the third defender from the sideline].
A man of influence: Blues back-rower Angus Crichton.Credit: Dylan Coker
“That’s how you create a three-on-two scenario out wide. It’s a focal point for us with Gus and Marto and then Hudson Young is probably the form back-rower of the NRL this year.
“If you’re only able to fit a guy like Haumole [Olakau’atu] in the extended squad, then NSW is going pretty well for back-rowers.”
Queensland’s Jeremiah Nanai and Reuben Cotter have both produced outstanding footy in their own right at times, Cotter especially at Origin level coming off the bench as a middle in 2023.
Neither Crichton nor Martin have been quite at their best either in 2025, with the Roosters and Panthers struggling for early-season form.
Liam Martin, the Blues resident maniac.Credit: Getty Images
But with 26 Origins between them (14 for Crichton, 12 for Martin) and their influence last year, the Blues edge back-rowers were always walking into the NSW line-up, and arguably have the greatest advantage in any man-on-man match-up.
Especially, as Watson points out, when you consider that Young will bring more madness from the Blues bench, while Queensland have in-form Titan Beau Fermor on debut.
Crichton knows Robinson’s theory on back-row play intimately. And knows just how helpful he can make himself to the Moses-Cleary combination – the first time NSW have partnered two traditional No.7s since Mitchell Pearce and Trent Hodkinson in 2015.
“Having your back-rowers hitting hard lines, when you have dominant halves like Mitch and Nath, you know where they’re going to be,” he says.
“So you can fly onto that line at a million miles an hour and straighten up the whole attack. Everyone obviously plays a role in it. But you’re asking about how you pull apart a defensive line.
“Well as a back-rower you can try and impact a defender by getting in the centre’s eyeline to create space for your outside men.
“[Cronulla back-rower] Briton Nikora, he’s so good at it. It’s your timing and intent, but also your depth and starting position with running the best possible line too.
“It all factors in, and you have to nail every part of it because defences are so good these days. That’s what we do for the 10 days in camp, we try and nail all that down together as a combo.”
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