How Tom Dearden found the greatest parts of Queensland's indomitable Origin spirit

Australia Broadcast Center

3 days ago

When Tom Dearden talks about what kept him going when his legs grew heavy — what drove him to dig deep, time and again, to lead his state to a victory that will live forever — he makes it all sound so simple.
"It's a pretty easy one, you look down and realise you're wearing the Maroon jersey," Dearden said.
"With that comes a lot of responsibility, you're not just playing for a team — you're representing the whole state and you feel that Queensland spirit. It keeps driving you."
What Dearden did in Queensland's 24-12 victory in Origin III, which ended with him winning man of the match and the Wally Lewis Medal as player of the series, will change his career and his life forever.
In scoring two tries, saving a couple more and helping lead the Maroons to yet another famous win, he inherits the greatest Queensland legacy of all, the one that turns men into folk heroes.
It gets passed down from generation to generation but only to players who can carry it because what is a crushing pressure to some becomes a propulsive force to others.
It lived in Billy Slater, who made the call to axe Daly Cherry-Evans for Dearden because he felt like this series was the beginning of his time. At the time it felt like a desperate gamble, but now it seems like the first steps towards a coronation.
It lives still in Cameron Munster, Dearden's halves partner, who showed his extraordinary courage just to take the field in Game III, and so inspired his teammates to show their love, and support the way they knew best.
"You look at this week, Munny losing his old man and for him to play and represent Queensland, it shows how passionate he is about this state," Dearden said.
"To play in the fashion that he did, he just means so much to us — you want to win and play well for him because you can feel how much it means to him.
"We all just love him so much."
After that night at Stadium Australia, where the faith and inspiration of the past and present came together and found a channel in Dearden, that same thing now lives in him.
You could see it in his speed and his dummy and his irrepressible support play, which are his special gifts and led to both his tries, and in the subtlety of the pass that put Reuben Cotter into space in the lead-up to Queensland's first try.
It was there in the way he pushed his teammates to their own limits, Cotter chief among them — Dearden's Cowboys teammate enjoyed his best game of the series by a way and he said it was the halfback that drove him there.
"He was constantly in my ear, and that's what kept me going in the end," Cotter told Channel Nine.
"He was f***ing into me. He was into me about making my tackles and staying in the game."
It was there in Dearden's three cover tackles on Blues winger Brian To'o, including one that saved a certain score, and in a dozen other smaller plays that lead to the big ones.
The latter is perhaps what makes Dearden the proudest, because to him that's a thing Queensland can only do together.
"What we speak about is competing hard and trying to accumulate all those little moments and little effort areas in the game, I thought we had a lot of those tonight and they end up leading to big moments," Dearden said.
"We completed really high and I thought our forwards and everyone around the ball did a great job, and when you put that much pressure on New South Wales, it brings us halves into the game.
"We weren't on the back foot, we earned our possession really well and good things come off the back of that."
Dearden has had a place in Origin history since his debut in 2022 when he stepped in for Munster in the decider in another famous Queensland win.
But this is something different, something rarer, something only a few players ever get to touch because games like Wednesday are how a Queenslander can feel like more than a player, more than what they are, maybe more than they ever thought they could be.
Origin is about rising to the occasion, but Origin greatness is about rising above it. All the Queensland heroes of the past have done it to build their part of the Maroon legend, and now Dearden has done the same.
"It's something you speak about a lot, playing Origin and wearing the Maroon jersey," Dearden said.
"It means so much to the whole playing group and the whole of Queensland, and that doesn't go unnoticed.
"I just really enjoy competing and I love representing my state. That brings out the best in you."
On many occasions during this series, the team has mentioned how much inspiration it has taken from the 1995 side that won the series 3-0 against the longest odds of all.
Trevor Gillmeister, who captained that side, reckons that every year during every series, he'll be stopped by scores of people who talk to him about those times like they just happened yesterday.
It will be the same for Dearden. He's almost certain to have other great nights in Maroon — after a game like this, the halfback jersey will be his for years.
But many years from now, when Origin comes around and Queenslanders see Dearden they'll ask him about 2025.
They'll ask about the two tries and the tackles on To'o, about doing it for Munster and his dad, about repaying Slater's faith, about what it was like to have a state on your shoulders and carry the weight, about what it's like to touch greatness and about what it's like to be a Maroon hero, with a medal on your neck and the shield in your hand and the colours flying high.
A game is just 80 minutes, but what Dearden won in that time lasts forever.