How DCE helped inspire the next generation of Maroons stars

Origin stars Daly Cherry-Evans and Anthony Milford were brought into the Queensland Under 19s camp by coach Darius Boyd to offer some reflections and advice on the value of the Maroons jersey.

Milford, 31, left the NRL in 2024 and has been plying his trade as a five-eighth for Souths Logan Magpies in Queensland Cup.

Cherry-Evans, 37, a former Maroons captain with 26 matches and six series wins between 2013-2025, is still helping to direct traffic in the NRL with Sydney Roosters.

He shares with Boyd the distinction of winning an NRL Premiership in his rookie year - Cherry-Evans with Manly in 2011 and Boyd with the Broncos in 2006.

Many of the Under 19s players who had a decisive 28-14 win over NSW at North Sydney Oval on Thursday night, had watched Boyd execute some of his 17 Origin tries in 28 games before he retired in 2020.

“It wasn’t a lot about me, but they did ask a lot of questions during the week as we tried to bring the Queensland history into camp,” Boyd told NRL.com.

“We talked about Arthur Beetson and others – Daly was a part of that. They really enjoyed his words. Milf spent time in the camp up in Brisbane too.

“It’s nice to bring back some of those Origin legends and show the players what it meant to play for your family and for your state.”

It is Boyd’s second year as Maroons Under 19s coach and the former star fullback is having the time of his life.

“It’s so enjoyable because you see what it means to the players and their families,” he said.

“I had a think back on my own career and looked at the some of the journeys these players have had to get to this point.

“Tonight we saw that some of them have bright futures and that’s exciting to see where they end up.”

With such a short preparation, Boyd sais it was invaluable to have another Origin legend with 309 NRL premiership games under his belt in assistant coach Andrew McCullough.

“Connection was the key,” Boyd said. “We can talk about Queensland spirit but we spent the whole week on talking about what the jersey means as we tried to connect.

“It’s hard to do in six days when players come from all different parts of the country and clubs.

“But we kept the focus simple – just work hard and work hard for each other.”

He said that helped with the free-flowing attack and sturdy defence witnessed at North Sydney Oval.

“We told them to bring your game because you can’t teach them much in four training sessions.

“They’ve come from the Redcliffe Dolphins, Brisbane Broncos, Parramatta Eels, Melbourne Storm even the New Zealand Warriors.

“So we told them to bring to the table the best they’ve got because if they’re having fun playing footy and backing their strengths, we’ll see some classy tries and we did.”

NSW Under 19s coach Josh Jackson is a former Brad Fittler Medal winner from his Origin career, said he asked his players throughout the week to make some memories while they trained hard.

“A lot have said to me this was one of the best weeks of their lives,” Jackson told NRL.com

“It’s had a real impact on them and potentially some of these guys will be in the Blues Origin team in four of five years’ time.

“It’s obviously a disappointing result but I can’t fault the boys for the effort they put in.

“And they were tremendous all week. We asked them to train with intensity and come together as a group and they were outstanding at that.

“Unfortunately they were beaten tonight by a very good Queensland side.”