I’m in camp at Coogee for next week’s Origin at the moment. It’s been a good week with the Blues. We’ve been training hard under Graham Murray but we got out for a quiet drink at the Ritz in Hurstville where a few Origin legends (including Garry Jack) joined us to swap a few stories.

andrew ryan is my origin roommate. Lovely guy but i wish he would put some pants on when relaxing in the room. He loves his room service and doesn’t mind the mirror either. We’re just bumming around at the moment, having finished training for the day.

I’ll get to see Bonnie and the boy tomorrow night when i watch the Eels boys take on the Cowboys at Parra. I’d like to say that we won’t do any good without

me on the field but i think we perform better when i’m not around.

I recently had a photo shoot for Alpha ahead of state of origin. It was a bit of a laugh. Myself, Matt King, john Thurston and Cameron Smith dressed up as ninjas.

i’d like to say i successfully channeled Bruce Lee or Michael Dudikoff for the shoot but if you have a look at the height of my high kick in the mag (shin high at best), i think you’ll agree that i’m closer to the Beverley Hills Ninja.

We fly out to Brisbane on Monday. They’re a passionate lot up there and even though the Blues don’t do the Caxton st run anymore you can definitely feel the atmosphere come the Brissy leg of the series.

Last night was pretty stressful. Ex-league great Paul Osborne came over to do his ABC radio show ‘Cooking with Ozzie’ at my place.
Everything would’ve been easier if little Archie wasn’t so excited but once the Chilli prawn linguine was almost done, things got a bit easier.
I think I aced the test, except I did forget [...]