{"id":734785,"date":"2026-06-13T21:50:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T21:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/734785\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T21:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T21:50:19","slug":"isaah-yeo-how-the-dubbo-kid-became-the-captain-leading-the-blues-to-state-of-origin-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/734785\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaah Yeo: How the Dubbo kid became the captain leading the Blues to State of Origin glory"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Rugby league players are conditioned to focus on the next task.<\/p>\n

The next tackle. The next hit-up. The next training session. The next opponent.<\/p>\n

Weeks like this are no different for Blues captain Isaah Yeo as he prepares to lead NSW into battle against Queensland at the MCG in front of almost 90,000 fans on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

But, for a fleeting moment, and for everything he has achieved in the game, Yeo allows himself to reflect on the prospect of a hard-working and skinny kid from Dubbo becoming a State of Origin-winning captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cA young Isaah just wouldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery journey is different, but I wasn\u2019t the most talented. I just felt the harder I worked, the luckier I got.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeo has won premierships with Penrith and represented Australia, but helping orchestrate another Blues win and a 2-0 series lead as captain would go close to trumping everything he has done in a sport he fell in love with through his father, Justin, an 11-game first-grader for North Sydney and Balmain.<\/p>\n

\"BluesBlues captain Isaah Yeo ahead of Origin II. Steven Siewert<\/p>\n

Blues players will board a team bus at 6pm on Wednesday from their hotel to the MCG and it will take between 10 and 25 minutes, depending on traffic.<\/p>\n

Of all things to reminisce about, Yeo brings up the six-hour bus rides he took as a schoolboy from Dubbo to the big smoke, determined to do anything to get his breakthrough.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn year 12, I didn\u2019t do the first term back at home because I had a pre-season in Penrith\u2019s SG ball side,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the season started, I\u2019d catch a bus and a train from Dubbo to Penrith, do a captain\u2019s run, play on the Saturday, and then get a train home at about 6am on the Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

\"IsaahIsaah Yeo with his parents, Justin and Amy, back in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did that for about 12 weeks. It didn\u2019t really help my ATAR or my HSC that much and I don\u2019t know whether Mum and Dad liked that I was away from school, but it didn\u2019t feel like a sacrifice at the time because I was doing what I loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Origin dream burnt bright for Yeo early, like many budding footballers in the region.<\/p>\n

He recalls fellow Dubbo product Andrew Ryan making a pit stop in his home town with Blues teammates about two decades ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing from the bush and having an Origin squad come out, you\u2019re just going, \u2018This is the best thing ever\u2019,\u201d Yeo says. \u201cYou certainly try and put yourself in those shoes now.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve just got to be a good person. If it\u2019s signatures or a meet and greet, it\u2019s just making sure you\u2019re all in on that. I certainly remember things when I was a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IsaahIsaah Yeo has played 18 matches for the Blues since debuting in 2020. Getty<\/p>\n

Yeo is acutely aware of the responsibility that comes with captaining the Blues but knows that, while club loyalties will remain, there is nothing like NSW fans willing their team on. They will rally, like always, behind their ultra-consistent skipper whose bad games you could count on one hand.<\/p>\n

This will be Yeo\u2019s fifth match as Blues captain and 19th game in the Origin arena. He has a 2-2 record as skipper, including last year\u2019s shattering 24-12 home loss in the decider in Sydney.<\/p>\n

Jake Trbojevic (2024), James Tedesco (2021) and Boyd Cordner (2018 and 2019) are the most recent Blues skippers to win Origin series. <\/p>\n

\"QueenslandQueensland captain Cameron Munster and NSW captain Isaah Yeo pose on the MCG ahead of this year\u2019s State of Origin series.NRL Photos<\/p>\n

The pressure of Origin II will be intense, but it is not something that bothers the unflappable 31-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d be lying though if you said it [the pressure] wasn\u2019t different in Origin,\u201d Yeo says. \u201cUltimately, you\u2019re doing what you love. All you want to do as a child is play NRL and then hopefully go and be a part of Origin. I certainly don\u2019t take it for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly as I\u2019ve got older, you get confidence out of your preparation, so it\u2019s making sure you don\u2019t really deviate or change what you do normally just because it\u2019s a bigger game. I\u2019m just trying to be myself and that\u2019s all I\u2019ve ever done with my leadership style.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been lucky enough to be part of some big games and you learn on the run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeo says the nerves of big games have become easier to handle. Four straight premierships with Penrith from 2021 to 2024 helped that, as has the familiarity of being alongside a handful of current and former Panthers teammates. Casey McLean was supposed to be there but was ruled out with a quad injury on Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"IsaahIsaah Yeo of the Blues is tackled during game one. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s made sacrifices because we wouldn\u2019t be in this position without them,\u201d Yeo says. \u201cI\u2019ve been very lucky with the family I\u2019ve got around me and my old man played a bit of NRL. He was only 18 when he had me, so I was always able to be at his footy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel it\u2019s always a bit harder coming from the country and the opportunities now I think are better than what they were when I was coming through. I was probably the first wave coming through, particularly at Penrith, where they were trying to get pathways sorted out in that region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeo knows the narrative can swing so quickly in Origin. Dropped balls and a misfiring attack left the Blues open to criticism in game one before Kalyn Ponga\u2019s errant shoulder on Tolu Koula swung momentum and helped NSW snatch a thrilling win.<\/p>\n

A Blues victory in Melbourne and Brisbane would be hailed as Origin dominance. A NSW series loss, having been 1-0 up, and the chokers tag will be theirs to wear.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the highest of highs or the lowest of lows,\u201d Yeo says. \u201cIf you lose a grand final, there\u2019s no lower feeling. If you lose a decider in Origin, there\u2019s no lower feeling. What makes those environments special is riding the rollercoaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"TomTom Decent<\/a> is the chief sports writer for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-734785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}