“You’d better start training soon because it will be dark at 4.30pm and we have no electricity to turn the lights on”.
That was Lismore mayor Steve Krieg to NSW coach Brad Fittler as his barefoot Blues players signed autographs and posed for selfies with locals who had turned out in force at Oakes Oval on Tuesday afternoon to watch the team’s first hit-out ahead of next week’s State of Origin decider.
By the time they finished the brief session held in fading light and driving rain, the NSW players were not only shoe-less but many had given away their shirts - and some their shorts - to fans lined along the fence of a ground which was under four metres of water during the recent floods.
“We have got a small session, so we just want to get dirty straight away and show that we are not here to fluff around,” Fittler said of the decision to train barefoot.
It was also a show of solidarity with a community that is still struggling for basic necessities more than four months after the biggest flood in modern Australian history.
Krieg spoke to the players upon their arrival to explain the damage that the floods had caused at Oakes Oval and around Lismore, where more than 100 homes are inhabitable and most of the town’s shops are either boarded up or being rebuilt.
Some homes still have no electricity, while many people haven’t been able to a have a hot shower since February.
“It is important for the players to know why they are here,” Krieg said. “Our changerooms have got no internal walls, we have got no running water, we had to get the council staff to put some temporary lighting in.
“I just told them that every kid here is pretty much living in those conditions day-to-day, and we are 16 weeks on from the biggest natural disaster in Australian history.
“That is the reality of our lives at the moment but to see the smile on these kid’s faces and to hear their laughter and the excitement of meeting their heroes up close will be life changing for them.
“It’s a massive morale boost and it lets our town know that people care. It was unexpected that the players would walk around to sign autographs and take selfies, but these kids will always remember the day the Blues came to Lismore.”
Fittler believes that the experience will also benefit his team as they attempt to overcome history at Suncorp Stadium next Wednesday night and become the only Origin side since the 1994 Blues to lose the series opener at home and win the remaining two matches away.
“When you drive through the town you can see the damage, and this is a long time after it happened, so you imagine a day like today brings back some awful memories but everyone seems to be in good spirits,” he said.
“This town has been a bit of an inspiration for NSW, and the biggest thing we have seen through the media is the spirit of people helping each other out and just being there for each other.
“They are the same messages we speak to our team about – playing for each other and working hard for each other.
"I think Lismore has been a great example and it is a great opportunity for us to come here and see first-hand the spirit of the community and, particularly, the kids.”
The Blues players also met Vincent Marychurch and his father-in-law Jeff Harris, who rescued more than 30 residents in a three-person tinnie as the flood waters rose.
“Most houses around here are built so that their second story level is the one-in-100 hundred year flood level,” Marychurch explained. “This was two-and-a-half metres above the one-in-100 year flood level, so that gives you an idea of how high it was.
“You would be four metres under water here at Oakes Oval and the water was roaring that day. It was pretty wild.
“We were going into people’s houses and they couldn’t get out the door because the fridge was pushed up against it so we would have to pull them out.
“There was an old guy who was up to his neck in the window. We could just see his face through the glass. Another bloke had two knee reconstructions and he couldn’t bend his legs. He was screaming in pain.
“There was a lady on an oxygen machine which couldn’t get wet, a disabled person in a wheelchair, cats and dogs …
"We only had a three-metre tinnie with a 15 horse-power motor so sometimes Jeff would have to stay while I dropped them off and came back to rescue someone else.
“A lot of people are struggling and depressed. so this is really good for the town and a great distraction for the kids."