Following their back-to-back NRL grand final wins, Isaah Yeo, lock for the Penrith Panthers, along with his teammates Brian To’o, Stephen Crichton, Jarome Luai, and Liam Martin, face unfamiliar territory at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday.
Their loss in game one in Adelaide and the absence of Latrell Mitchell has resulted in NSW being labelled the underdogs as they attempt to rescue the series.
Yeo acknowledges that this is not something he is used to.
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“I’ve been fortunate enough that I haven’t had to do that too often, but I feel like any player; it seems to motivate them, it certainly does for this group, and it’s going to need to,” he told Wide World of Sports.
Yeo has become adept at dominating the middle of the field at the NRL level alongside Nathan Cleary, but he will have a new partner in Mitchell Moses following Cleary’s injury.
The lock maintains that “nothing really changes,” but he admits that he needs to improve on his game one performance.
“I guess I’m fortunate enough where I’ve got the ability to play as that link man or I can play as that bloke who carries the ball; it’s just a matter of making sure I do that better than what I was doing in game one,” he said.
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“I probably didn’t touch the ball as much in that game so I’ll try and get my hands on it a little bit more, just to help us get to our spots a little bit more and try and earn momentum.
“I feel like we actually did that (earn momentum) pretty good in game one… so I feel like I can help in that situation. I certainly won’t overthink it, just do my role as best I can, and hopefully that’ll help the team.”
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With NSW facing the challenge of being the “enemy” in Brisbane, Payne Haas has described it as “the biggest challenge we’ve faced as a team.”
Yeo admits that the weight of the occasion certainly makes it one of the biggest challenges he has faced in his ten-game Origin career.
“We’ve dropped game ones before, but we haven’t been up there for that game two, so yeah, I guess if you’re looking at it like that, it probably is the biggest challenge,” he said.
“History’s against us, particularly going up there, but I feel like you’ve got to enjoy that, you’ve got to embrace that challenge. I feel like that’s what State of Origin’s all about, back against the wall now and you’ve just got to go after it.”
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Hasibur Rahaman is a passionate sports journalist. He covers everything from cricket to field hockey, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis of sporting events, both within India and on the international stage.
Denial of responsibility! Samachar Central is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
