Farah reaps rewards after some wise advice from Elias Read

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Farah reaps rewards after some wise advice from Elias
Michael Chammas
June 12, 2012
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ONE of Robbie Farah's earliest memories of State of Origin is watching a bloody Ben Elias celebrate victory for the Blues at the SFS two decades ago.

It was only fitting the Tigers' hooker of the century presented Farah with his jersey at a Blues gathering of greats in Coogee last night.

When Farah first burst on to the scene in 2003, he drew comparisons to Elias, not just because he was a Lebanese footballer who wore the No.9 for the Tigers, but because of the style of his game.

While Farah was humbled by the comparisons, he said he was too young to base his game on Elias.

''I've always been asked that coming through the grades at the Tigers, because everyone said I played pretty similar to him,'' Farah said. ''They thought I based my game around him, but I was probably too young.''

Elias has long pushed for Farah to be reinstated as NSW hooker after he last represented the Blues in 2009\. Now he's been given a second chance, Elias believes Farah has a chance to make the position his own.

''The destiny is in his own hands,'' Elias said. ''There's only one bloke who can stuff it up from here and that's himself. I know he's been very patient waiting for this opportunity.

''A few years ago I rang him up and told him to be patient and it'll come your way. I hope on Wednesday night he does the things that got him to where he is today.''

Throughout his career, Elias has been in regular contact with Farah, in good times and bad.

''He's not involved with the Tigers, as such, but he gives me a call every now and then,'' Farah said.

''Obviously if I've played well, he's texting me. It's not every week, but when he feels the need, especially last year when I missed out on Origin. This year, heading into Origin, he rang me and just told me little things about my game … to get advice like that, I'd be silly not to listen to it. He's someone I respect and someone I'm always willing to listen to.''

NSW haven't had an established hooker since Danny Buderus last decade, chopping and changing between Michael Ennis and Farah. But the Tigers hooker has no intention of giving up his jersey again.

''I had the chance a few years ago and I gave the jersey up,'' Farah said.

''I will be doing everything I can to hold on to this jersey, and make sure that I'm around here and having a part of the winning Blues' culture for a few years to come.''

 

[Flippedy]

I'm really loving these stories about Robbie and seeing his time in the Origin spotlight this year. After being, what I thought, unfairly shafted after a couple of games a few years ago, I really believed that he was marked never to play Origin again. I seriously thought he must've done something else wrong besides his one bad game. Especially since plenty of others have had countless bad games in Origin, yet somehow remained in the team.

I was so angry when they kept overlooking him, throwing up names that were nowhere near his class and the way Ennis just pushed his own media campaign and ended up capitalising on that 1 bad game from Robbie. At the time, Robbie wasn't playing as well as he is now for sure, but he was still a better option than Ennis on a good day. Yet all the talk was about how NSW needed to build a team around 'made for Origin' players like Michael Ennis blah, blah, blah - isn't it funny how things have changed? Just 12 months later and those same people in the media are now talking up Farah and Ennis is not even in the picture anymore!

I am really happy for him - he was patient, he got over his injuries and improved his game. What goes around comes around and Elias is right, he does have his destiny in his own hands now. I know you QLD Tigers supporters would perish the thought, but a Blues series win would go a long way to helping Robbie to cement his spot in the team for a long time - just sayin :wink: Either way, I hope that Robbie has the game of his life tomorrow night - he certainly wouldn't want to give the selectors any more reasons to go looking for alternatives again.