NSW forward Ryan Hoffman played for Queensland U/19s Ryan Hoffman with his fellow NSW forwards ahead of State of Origin II. Ryan Hoffman in action for Queensland Colts in 2003. Picture: Bruce Long Source: The Courier-Mail SOMEWHERE north of the border, there's a picture of Ryan Hoffman playing Queensland Origin wannabe. "Although I'm hoping Mum doesn't have it on display anymore," the NSW back-rower laughs. She had the photo out at home for a while because, when I represented Queensland 19s, it was her idea to try and replicate Dad's pose in his own Maroons strip. But I think it's been boxed away now ... at least I hope it has. While he may have grown up in a house quintessentially Queeeenslandah - indeed, his old man Jay played three times for the Maroons - Hoffman is quickly emerging as a key element for the Blues. Not that many have noticed, of course. No, with all the boozy headlines, injury dramas and howls about removing the punch from Origin, who has time to talk up a Melbourne cleanskin who simply does his job better than anyone else in the NRL? Yet in a week when the very nature of Origin toughness is being debated, who better to define it than a fella who, in his youth, would run barefoot on bitumen, running until his feet bled, to toughen himself mentally? Who five years after his last series, and a stint in England, is now back. And for proof, find yourself a copy of Origin I, 2008. To a long forgotten moment when, with NSW up by 14 and eight minutes on the clock, Maroons centre Brent Tate gets the ball with nothing but fresh air between him and the tryline. And then Hoffman emerges, not only covering more ground than anyone expects, but bundling Tate into touch with a beautiful bootlace tackle. A moment defining not the series, not even the game ... just the man. "I do remember it," Hoffman says. "I definitely wouldn't call it a great moment, an Origin moment, but I do remember that tackle."People talk about toughness and, for me, it's about doing the same job in the 80th minute that you were in the first. Making the same runs and tackles, filling the same spaces. And as for his previous life as, ahem, a Queenslander? "Ah, yeah, it was a bit weird as a kid because Mum and Dad, they're both Queenslanders and have always cheered for them," the Blacktown junior continues. So even though I followed them a little bit at first, deep down it just didn't feel right. It was the same when, because Melbourne's feeder club was in Queensland, I represented the Maroons 19s. You played but it didn't feel right. So for me, there was no choice. Even when I was young, people would say 'oh, how can you support the Blues when you're old man is a Queenslander, your mum's a Queenslander?'. I'd just look at them, smile and say 'well, I'm not'.