Every NRL coach will tell you they want State of Origin players. They just don’t want the problems that arise when those players get together around the fire at a chilly State of Origin camp.
They can spend long periods of downtime comparing notes on golf swings, parenting techniques or Instagram followers. The problem for most coaches is that they also compare notes on clubs and salaries.
Each year, the clubs with big Origin representations will have at least one player come back with a restlessness about something or other. This year, it was Brian To’o at the Panthers.
Rumours that To’o was uneasy with his lot at Penrith first surfaced straight after the Origin series, which NSW won after one of the most brutal rugby league matches in history.
On face value, it was difficult to see why.
To’o was already well paid and a star on a team which has won the last three NRL titles and is favoured to win a fourth. He’s arguably the best winger in the game and is remunerated as such, due to earn well over $600,000 next year before Origin match payments.
Panthers winger Brian To’o.Credit: Getty Images
Neutral observers will argue he is among the most genuine people in the game, not one to cunningly clear a path to a bigger payday elsewhere.
But it was under NSW coach Michael Maguire that To’o realised what he had, and what he was going to miss – his mates.
Former Penrith teammates Stephen Crichton (Bulldogs) and Spencer Leniu (Roosters) had been nervous about their moves away from the Panthers, but have thrived at their new clubs. Jarome Luai and Sunia Turuva will join the Tigers next year. The quartet were all part of To’o’s bridal party at his wedding, the men who bring the noise and energy to the Panthers with their trademark boom box.
After almost five weeks in Origin camps with Crichton, Leniu and Luai, To’o sensed the music was about to be turned off – and he would be the last one on the dance floor.
Blues brothers: Spencer Leniu, Stephen Crichton, Brian To’o, Jarome Luai after NSW’s Origin series victory.Credit: NRL Photos
On Thursday, he sat down with his manager, Liam Ayoub, and Panthers rugby league chief executive Matt Cameron to ease any fears he held. To’o is contracted to Penrith until the end of 2027. Cameron wouldn’t go into details of the discussion, but scoffed at any suggestion To’o would walk out on the club.
“Today we had a very positive discussion with Brian and his management,” Cameron said on Thursday. “Brian confirmed he is fully committed to the club moving forward as he aims to help win a fourth grand final.”
To’o said as much, too, releasing his own personal statement accompanied by an animation in the very modern way athletes do these days. Instagram, of course.
“Thanks for all the support fams,” he wrote. “Nothing to see. Not going anywhere, no shopping here. Let’s get it.”
Having snuck under the guards of their western Sydney rivals to poach boom teenager Blaize Talagi from Parramatta, and with Nathan Cleary back at the wheel after his serious hamstring injury, the Panthers seemed destined for a fifth straight grand final even as the salary cap breaks up the band. They would hardly have expected to be putting out a post-Origin fire with To’o of all people.
But Origin can do funny things to good people.
