CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Veteran Queensland captain Daly Cherry-Evans has today welcomed his problem child, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, back into the Maroons squad.
This comes as the 25-year-old Gold Coast star returns to State Of Origin football after a 12 month absence due to an ACL rupture.
Tino ‘Big Country’ Fa’asuamaleaui represents the type of sometimes uncontrollable explosiveness that Origin football has come to define, and has found himself on the wrong side of both his skipper and plenty of referees throughout his 12 matches in a Maroon jersey.
However, after missing the the entire 2024 series, Fa’asuamaleaui has once again been included in coach Billy Slater’s squad.
He joins a list of potential debutants for Game 1 of the 2025 State of Origin series.
This marks yet another series that will likely be defined by the ball-playing prop’s clear disdain for New South Wales.
The relationship with between ‘Big Country’ and his Queensland superiors have been tested over the years, with the 2020 series marking a rare moment of player-to-player discipline – as Cherry Evans tore strips off the Origin rookie inside the losing dressing sheds after Game 2.
The Channel Nine cameras caught the skipper angrily rinsing down Fa’asuamaleaui after the latter had been sin binned for punching the fuck out of Payne Hass during a 34-10 loss to NSW.
Queensland went on to win the series in a glorious pandemic-era upset, but Big Country only returned for one match the following year.
In 2022, he was back on the pitch for all three matches, and engrained himself in Origin highlight reels for eternity after punching holes through NSW star Matt Burton during yet another famous Queensland win.
2023 saw Tino playing all three matches with increased aggression right up until the dead rubber decider in a 2-1 Queensland series victory.
He has not returned to the Origin arena since.
And it is believed that Big Country is out for blood in 2025, after seeing what the Blues did to his Maroons teammate Reece Walsh while he was at home with his leg in a cast.
But will his Queensland captain allow him to go ‘full Gympie’ in his quest for vengeance this year.
After today’s exchange, it would seem so.
“Tino! You son of a bitch!” said DCE, as the two men embrace.
“What’s the matter? The Titans got you pushing too many pencils? Huh?”
The two men break into laughter, as the skipper scruffs up Tino’s mullet.
“If it bleeds, we can kill it” says the captain.
