Why Coates is ready to give NSW a Bellyache in Origin
Joel Gould |
Queensland winger Xavier Coates is ready to shine in the State of Origin decider and scupper the hopes of the coach who shaped him into the elite player he is.
Coates is one of several Melbourne players in the Maroons side who will come up against Storm coach Craig Bellamy in his role of NSW advisor to head coach Laurie Daley.
It is an interesting dynamic but Coates, 24, has become the try scoring machine he is largely due to Bellamy’s influence.
“I wouldn’t be the same player without him,” Coates said.
“He has stern conversations with everyone, not just one player. He doesn’t hold a hierarchy there at the Melbourne Storm, everyone is the same and if you are not doing your role you will hear about it.
“He is a really great coach and he has mentored me very well down in Melbourne and I’m so thankful for him doing that.
“It’s all down to your preparation really leading into a game. If you want to be a consistent player you have to be performing consistently in training sessions and that will follow suit into games. That is the main thing I take away from Bellsa.”
Coates has shown his versatility in this series, playing right and left wing in the opening two games.
The Maroons have not allowed media viewing of any team training this camp and Coates wasn’t giving away which side he would play in Sydney.
“I’m not too sure, I have to wait and see. Wherever I play I have to do my job and that’s what I want to do Wednesday night,” he said.
Coates was used to playing right wing before he went to the Storm in 2022 from Brisbane. He has shown great aptitude at both after making adjustments to his technique.
“I switched sides and if you move sides, the way you jump has to change,” he said.
“On the right-hand side, I was jumping off my left leg and when I came over to the left side, I had to learn to jump off my right, so doing that was a little bit of change.
“Everyone in the NRL is pretty versatile, they can play multiple positions, left and right, so it was probably a good change for me to get used to the left-hand side as well.
The Maroons hung on to win 26-24 in Perth after leading 26-6 at halftime and know they must be better in Sydney.
“We all know within the playing group our second-half performance wasn’t up to scratch so that’s something we want to improve on,” Coates said ahead of his 13th Origin match.
“We have sat down and done a review of the game and where we can improve, so we will look to better that in this camp and hopefully follow that through to Wednesday night when we play.”
AAP
