'Happy to just play one Cup game': Paskins' rise to NRL State Championship
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If someone had told Blake Paskins two years ago where he’d be today, he would not have believed them for a second.
A proud Mackay product, the outside back moved to Brisbane at the end of last season in the hope of a fresh start.
And he got that plus a whole lot more.
The 24-year-old is now a Hostplus Cup premiership winner and is about to head to Sydney to play on NRL grand final day in the NRL State Championship.
It’s the stuff of dreams.
“If you’d asked me two years ago, I wouldn’t have envisioned winning a grand final at Norths,” Paskins said.
“I was a pretty proud Mackay boy and coming down, the main goal was to stay fit and play as many games as possible.
“When the opportunity came for the squad to win a title… you try not to think about it too much during the finals and I reckon it didn’t even sink in until the last eight minutes of that grand final game.
“You start to look at the clock and you realise what’s coming. When I left high school, I was going to be happy to just play one Cup game so I’m super grateful.”
To get to that premiership, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Paskins or the Devils as a whole.
For the Norths winger, he came to Bishop Park wanting a premiership but the main focus was on his fitness and his time on the field, especially as he made his comeback from ankle surgery.
But he’s the first to admit that comeback didn’t go all as planned.
“I was born and raised in Mackay and I just wanted a bit of a new environment,” Paskins said of his move to Brisbane," Paskins said.
“The opportunity to come here and to experience a new club and a new environment was an opportunity I was looking for.
“I had to change up my game a bit playing wing predominantly this year after being centre in Mackay.
“I’ve had to learn a bit going through the year. I started a bit rocky and was probably part of that inconsistent patch we had as a team at the start of the year, playing in a bit of a new position.
“But I was given an opportunity and I kept trying to improve as the year’s gone on.”
As for the team, the Devils at one stage of the season enjoyed a seven-game winning streak.
But, five games into that run, they lost key playmaker Gerome Burns – who was also leading the Petero Civoniceva Medal tally at the time.
Then they endured through a slight form slump before finals, before finding their feet in their run to the Hostplus Cup trophy.
For Paskins, those hiccups and bumps along the way made the premiership even sweeter.
“Reflecting on it now, I’m sure every team in the comp had some adversity at some stage to go through,” he said.
“But I have to admit, when we lost our best player - and the best player in the comp at the time - midway through the season, I had thoughts, ‘are we still the same team?’
“We had a bit of a form slump going into the finals as well, it wasn’t all smooth sailing.
“But the way we rallied together… we just flushed it. We’re a very tight group so very proud of how we were able to come back.”
And it is the squad, the staff and the unity at Norths that Paskins believes will see them continue to find success.
With a lot of new faces alongside Paskins at the start of the year, they have come along way.
They will now head to Sydney, looking to break a nine-year long drought for the Hostplus Cup in the NRL State Championship this Sunday.
And Paskins is hoping the bonds they have will see them succeed.
“Squad-wise, I feel like everything has come together how we envisioned it,” he said.
“When I came here, it was a very new squad and everyone here was very open and trying to get to know each other from early on.
“I found from the players, all the assistant coaches, everyone in rehab, it was a very social bunch and everyone was on the same page.
“We’ve still got plenty of different personalities in the team that makes it work and we all enjoy coming to training, which is a big thing.
“We enjoy each other’s company and that’s led to our success.
“I found one of the big differences I was able to experience here was the leadership we had from the entire leadership group.
“They’re a very composed group and the standards were always the same throughout the year. We didn’t change anything and we didn’t have to enforce them too much.
“We could let it slide a little bit at times but the demeanour of our leadership group kept us stable.
“We refer to it as our “purple patch”. The standards enforced by the coaching staff with the support of the leadership group have kept us on track here.
“This weekend, it’s another opportunity for us to show how good we are as a team. If we play to the best of our ability, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t bring that trophy home.”
Main image: Blake Paskins. Photo: Erick Lucero/QRL
