After answering the call from his old mate Billy Slater last year, Ben Cross is again lending a helping hand to the Maroons, putting aside his history with the Blues to give his Hostplus Cup players an opportunity to learn from the best.
As head coach of the Ipswich Jets, the former New South Wales player was on hand to direct his side as they took part in an opposed session against the Queensland side during their camp on Thursday.
For Queensland coach Slater, it is a case of If it ain't broke - don't fix it, opting to replicate the successful preparations from last year's Game One when they trained against Jets in the lead up to winning the opening match of the series.
"It’s a gentleman's agreement, with Bill just being a good mate of mine and a former teammate," Cross - who played with the Storm, Raiders and Newcastle during his NRL career - said of how the training session came about.
"I'll have to give Brad - Freddy - a call … ah no, I won't be doing that," he joked.
"(But) anything we can do to help prepare them and gives these guys [the Jets] a bit of a shot in the arm, they're training against some of their idols and, you know, some of them might be out there with them one day as well.
"Players like Tommy Dearden were playing Cup a few years ago, I was coaching against him when he was at Souths Logan Magpies not too long ago ...
"Quite frankly, some of these players, in a year or two's time - you don't know how fast players can rise, this might be just the shot in the arm that they need.
"They can see that ‘you know, I'm just as big and just as skillful as that guy’ and it's just the small attention to detail that they do in their game that's the difference at this stage.
"And if they [Queensland] can get something out of it, then it’s job well done."
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Jets winger Ratu Rotavisoro was part of the opposed session with the Maroons last year and later went on to represent Queensland himself, playing in the victorious Queensland Universities team against New South Wales.
Rotavisoro the session said it was good opportunity to learn as he was hoping to again feature in the game set to be played at North Sydney Oval on July 22.
"We did it last year with them and it was good," Rotavisoro said.
"I hope they get something from it again this year, (I'm supporting) Queensland all day, hope it’s another win for Game One.
“I come from Fiji, but go Queensland.”
With the Jets struggling this season and still searching for their first win, Cross, who is also a former coach of the NSW Women's representative side, was hoping his players would take away the importance doing the small things right to help them turn around their fortunes.
"About their attention to detail and the intensity that they train at," Cross said.
"Even in a lowkey opposed session, it's all done really purposefully and that's what I try to implement with our training; that everything we do has a real purpose about it, but it's the level of intensity – you have got to do it here at training and that carries over to the game.
"You've got to train the way you want to play.
"And (my players) can just see this is only a Thursday and they play next Wednesday, so it's still a long way from when they would actually play, but the intensity is starting now and that's always.
"If they want to go to the NRL, that intensity is always, it's not just when you feel like it, it's always on.
"So that's, that's something I want them to take out of it."
The Jets will again take part in training against Queensland before Game Three.
The Maroons had a day off yesterday and are set to get back into training later today.
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