NSW Origin legend Tim Brasher looks back on 1994 win
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Well, big, big game tonight. State of Origin 3, the Decider in Brisbane. We've only ever won a Decider in Queensland twice. I think we've had 13 goes at it too, so we haven't been all that successful. The Blues going up to Maroons Territory and winning a Decider in Brisbane. It takes a pretty special team to do it, and it takes a special bunch of players...

And a bit of luck, I'd say, too. Now, the teams that did it were in 1994 and in 2005. Now, listen to the 1994 team. You had players like Andrew Ettinghausen, Freddie Fittler, Ricky Stewart, Laurie Daly, Ben Elias, Paul Siren, and Bradley Clyde. It was star-studded. Champions of the game. And in that decider in 1994 was fullback and Balmain legend Tim Brash. And I'm pleased to say Tim Brash is on the line for us. Brash, g'day.

Hey, Trish, how you doing? I'm not too bad. How was it, 1994? You're going up to the decider. You're going to Lang Park at the time. I think it was Mal Meninga's very last game in a Maroons jersey too, so it had all that going on. Were you nervous? The thing about origin is you don't really get nervous until you hit the catch. I'm actually standing out the front line right now.

So it's getting loose up there. But definitely like the day, it's a long week. It's a long day. Well, at the beginning of the week, it's good fun. We used to do the bonding with the boys. And then it becomes a pretty long week. And the day of the game is so long. You've got to keep your mind off the game. You've got to just go for a walk downtown, do whatever. Yeah.

As soon as you get in that bus and go past the taxi and you get those cans thrown at you, they rocked the bus. It was game on. Because you could see the lights of the stadium. And that's when you started feeling the nerves and you started getting the adrenaline pumping. You had a very serious team, that 1994 team. Very, very good. We had a serious team that pretty much the late 80s to the early 2000s, we had a great team of guys, pretty much like

But you could only manage to win a decider in Brisbane once in 1994 and all that time, Brash. So what is it? What makes it so difficult?

I don't know, but I played eight series and won six, so we're obviously still winning. But I don't know how many deciders there were in that time, actually, at Lang Park. My first origin was 92. It was a decider in Sydney. We won that. So, yeah, I'm not sure. But the myth that Lang Park Suncorp was...

was a bit of a hoax and we didn't like playing there was absolutely wrong. We loved it because the crowd was so vocal, you know, and you knew if you're playing well, you knew you were playing well, but you know what? They were quiet.

You couldn't hear anything. Was that something that Gus, I know Gus was your coach, was that something that you guys talked about, Gus talked about, you know, get some points on the board early? And I know there was a few intercepts in that game. Get some points on the board early to take the crowd out of it.

Well, absolutely. And that's Queensland. If you can do that up here, you're less in the noise. But in saying that, as a footballer, you want noise, you want atmosphere. You know, I used to play at South Sydney when we played at the new Olympic Stadium and we had 3,000 people in the crowd.

You hear that? That's all you can hear. Right. So we would much rather play in front of 80,000, you know, two-headed Queenslanders screaming at us than have nothing. So, you know, atmosphere is everything. And, like, that's one thing that this place, Sunport Stadium, will give tonight. The boys, you know, the most pressure most of these guys are going to be under in their lives. But, you know, what I love about Origin is it brings the cream to the top.

And you'll find out who can and who can't. Can they do it tonight, briefly, Brash? Absolutely. I think they're going on that first half of last game. I think we showed what they've got. Obviously having, you know, four-pack moving forward, giving our halves plenty of time and space. Then they fed the outside backs. Our kicking game was great, both short and long. So I think definitely we've got it. Tim Brasher, I really appreciate you jumping on. All the best. Hope you survive Caxton Street.

Go to the Blues. It's been tough already. Go to the Blues. That's Tim Brasher, New South Wales origin legend.