State of Origin master coach Paul Vautin has pinpointed Tino Fa’asuamaleaui as the missing piece from last year’s Queensland defeat, predicting the 2025 campaign will announce him as the Maroons’ long-term leader.
Speaking as he unveiled “Fatty Says” – an app that will enable users to hear his AI-generated commentary of the series – Vautin declared the Titans’ skipper was the front-runner to succeed Maroons captain Daly Cherry-Evans.
After suffering a ruptured ACL, Fa’asuamaleaui was forced to watch Queensland’s 2024 series defeat from the sidelines, as well as his Gold Coast club’s third-straight bottom-four finish.
Paul Vautin believes Tino Fa’asuamaleaui (centre) has what it takes to captain the Maroons in future.Credit: Getty
But when asked if the 25-year-old’s absence was central to the Maroons’ downfall, Vautin offered an emphatic “yes”.
“I watch every game, and Tino is the best forward I’ve seen in 20 years,” Vautin told this masthead.
“He’s all action; he wants to get involved in nearly every play: he runs hard, he’s effective at the line – he normally gets halfway through the line every time he runs – and he’s got a great offload.
“The other thing is, his defence is outstanding, he’s a great tackler, and he chases from marker. No one chases from marker these days. I reckon I made half of my tackles in my career chasing from marker, it’s the best place to defend from.
“He gets it, and he chases, and he smashes them. He’s a wonderful leader, so I think he’s the best forward in the game, and we missed him a lot last year.
“There are captains who are smart and do a lot of spruiking, but Tino is a captain who just goes ‘follow me boys’ by his actions. The great captains I’ve played under used to do that – you watch them take the ball up 100 miles an hour and go, ‘f— if he can do it, so can I’.
“He’s a follow me-type captain, and he’ll be successful for the rest of his career doing that.”
Fa’asuamaleaui looms as the most influential forward to take the field on Wednesday night.
Fellow enforcer Lindsay Collins comes into the clash with just 28 minutes of football under his belt since early April, having battled a knee injury suffered in round five, and the man himself admitted to this masthead he felt uncertain about his standing, given his limited game time.
However, Vautin, who famously led Queensland’s “Neville Nobodies” to the 1995 series victory, believed Maroons coach Billy Slater would have some last-minute tinkering to do, despite the latter suggesting on Tuesday he was not considering any changes at this stage.
“Last year, they left Collins on the bench, and I thought that was a mistake because Collins is a dude – like Tino – who goes, ‘I’m the alpha male, you follow me’. It wouldn’t surprise me if Billy starts with him instead of Mo Fotuaika,” Vautin said.
“He loves Origin. I know he’s only just come back from injury, but he loves Origin, and he’ll score a try. You watch, in the series, he will score a try.”
With Fa’asuamaleaui back to spearhead the engine room, Cherry-Evans was quick to claim his presence would achieve more than provide an engaging battle with Blues rival Payne Haas, should the latter recover from a quad complaint in time.
“A lot of games are won and lost through the middle of the field, so if you’ve got someone like Tino out there who’s going to lay a platform both with and without the ball, they’re always going to be a better side,” Cherry-Evans said.
“He’s a leader, people follow Tino.”
What is “Fatty Says”?
“During Origin, if it gets boring and they want to spice up their Origin a bit, you can get the app and listen to my commentary, which is done by AI. I’ve just listened to it, it’s my voice. Everything I commentate is actually sayings I used maybe 30 years ago, 25 years ago, and I do the whole Origin game. There’s another part of the app where you can ask me a question – it might be who’s the best player you ever played with, what’s the most tackles you made in a game, or marriage advice.” – Paul Vautin
To unlock the FATGPT AI function to chat with Fatty, punters will need to upload proof of purchase of a carton of XXXX.
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