A text from Craig Bellamy this week continued Billy Slater's crash course on coaching that is beginning in the State of Origin arena and could possibly flow into the NRL. The champion Queensland fullback will be just the third person to lead an Origin team without any previous senior head coaching experience when he guides the Maroons against NSW in Game 1 on Wednesday in Sydney. "I've never dipped my toe in in my life; it's a start of this (coaching) for me ... but just another part of my Queensland Origin story," said Slater on Tuesday. "So where it takes me, I don't know. "This team has been important to me since I was a four-year-old boy ... that's the only reason I'm here." "He's been very influential ... I've been around Craig for 20 years, you know, so if you're around someone for long enough, you become that environment," he said, noting Bellamy's work ethic as his biggest strength. "They have an influence over you and he's been he's been great to me, very supportive, sent me a text yesterday actually. "I don't anticipate carrying on like him (during the game), but stranger things have happened." "But we had a couple of really good sessions and that put me at ease," he said. "So from Saturday on I've been really, really comfortable, really excited. "The players have given given me a lot of belief. I suppose a part of my job is to instil belief in them, but I'll tell you what they've instilled a fair bit of belief in me."
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