From Beetson and Roach to Geyer and Gillmeister, State of Origin has been rugby league’s most brutal test for almost half a century.
“When you walk off after an Origin game, you are physically and mentally exhausted,” former NSW Blues flyer Brett Morris said famously back in 2015.
“It takes a massive toll, you go to dark places in Origin where your body has never been before.”
A decade on from Morris’ comments, Origin is faster and more physically demanding than ever, so it’s perhaps unsurprising the vast majority of players to enter that ‘dark place’ during the 2025 series are in their mid-to-late twenties.
In fact, just four of the 34 players named for the Game III decider next Wednesday night are 30 or older.
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But it isn’t all bad news for Origin veterans.
While their representative glory days may now be behind them—last-minute recalls like Josh Papali’i notwithstanding—there are still more than twenty former Maroons and Blues stars plying their trade for NRL clubs, many well into their thirties.
Who’s the oldest, you ask?
For Queensland, that record is held by 35-year-old Ben Hunt, currently working his way back into the Brisbane Broncos side following a hamstring injury in May.
Closely behind Hunt are fellow Maroons veterans, Dane Gagai, 34, and Felise Kaufusi, 33.
Switching focus to New South Wales, South Sydney Rabbitohs halfback Cody Walker—also currently out with a hamstring injury—is the oldest former Blues star still active this season at the ripe old age of 35.
Walker is followed by a scrum of 34-year-old former Blues—Daniel Tupou, Damien Cook, Jack de Belin and Adam Reynolds—with Knights forward Tyson Frizzell, 33, another year back.
Of course, the man who led the Maroons into Game I at Suncorp Stadium this year, Daly Cherry-Evans, is older than them all at 36.
However, for the purpose of this analysis only players who have not appeared in the 2025 Origin series have been considered ‘former’ players.