Paul Kent says NSW Blues, with Nathan Merritt in the side, are on the verge of one of their great moments Debutant winger Nathan Merritt could help the Blues to a fairytale Origin series win tonight. CINDERELLA would have rated two paragraphs down the bottom of the local Police Gazette - busted for gatecrashing the big party - if she hadn't married Prince Charming at the end. Snow White would have been remembered as the strange lady living in the woods with the dwarfs if Prince Charming, by now on to his second marriage, hadn't happened along. The point is, some stories are just meant to be written. The fairytale ending seems almost pre-destined. I remember standing in the parade ring at Flemington as the runners headed to the track before the 2002 Melbourne Cup. Richard Freedman was somewhere between working for Channel 7 and building his next golf course, money burning holes in all his pockets, when he bounced up the few steps with his usual confidence. "He'll win," he said. He was talking about Damien Oliver. Just days after his brother Jason died following a barrier trial fall, Oliver was heading out on the Cup's second favourite Media Puzzle, a horse few had heard of until a fortnight earlier. Many hoped, but those who like a little reality in their fairytales couldn't see how Media Puzzle could get past his better-credentialled stablemate Vinnie Roe. It was the story, though. The Freedmans were close to the Olivers after both boys were indentured to them as apprentices, and they spent a lot of time with Damien in the days around his brother's death. You really think he'll win? I asked Richard. "I'm telling you," he said. It'll happen. Australia had any number of likely looking gold medallists going in to the Sydney Olympics. Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett. George Foreman decks Michael Moorer in 1994, Cathy Freeman wins gold in 2000 and Nathan Merritt gets set for his NSW debut in 2013. The Games were in our home town, though, and Cathy Freeman was not just the race favourite, she was Aboriginal, and the US media, with its own racial history as a backdrop, brought a focus to Freeman that made her event much more than a 400m race. Soon, she had the attention of the world over. Cathy became the story, and rose above those Olympics. Come the night, the entire world focused on lane four, and the girl with small shoulders and all that hope resting on them. George Foreman returned to boxing 10 years after he left, hoping to raise money for his church by becoming heavyweight champion again. It took him seven years, but the night he walked into the ring to face Michael Moorer there was Moorer's trainer, Teddy Atlas, and he looked across the ring at George taking off his robe to reveal the trunks he wore the night he lost to Muhammad Ali 20 years earlier. They were faded and shiny in the seat. Suddenly, Atlas realised they were in against a whole different heavyweight this night. Foreman stopped Moorer in the 10th. Bo Jackson was America's greatest sportsman until he dislocated a hip. He was written off after that, nobody believing he could ever make it back to what or where he was. Then during recovery his mum died, and he vowed he would not only make it but that, when he did, he would dedicate to her his first home run. First night back, first ball, first swing, Jackson put it out of the park. He had the ball bronzed and placed on his mother's headstone. Some stories, you see, are just waiting to be written. People in my business are just here to fill in the blanks. These are just a few examples plucked from memory, written about or read about, watched on those rare moments, but moments that don't fade easily. So tonight we head to Suncorp Stadium to watch Nathan Merritt, sunbeam and smile. He has been mentioned in Origin circles since about the time NSW started their seven-year losing streak. In that time he has seen the likes of Anthony Quinn, David Williams, Steve Turner and James McManus all picked before him for a game or two before disappearing. Little or no explanation was ever given as to why, and for a while it looked like Cinderella would miss the ball. Snow White might never wake up. But then a little magic dust was sprinkled over this series. NSW won the first game and were set to go to Suncorp Stadium with their best chance in years to win the series. And then Blake Ferguson was sacked and Laurie Daley picked up the phone to call in the one man waiting for a chance, one Merritt conceded might be gone but one he never gave up on, with the Blues on the verge of one of their great moments. And so tonight we hope, and cheer the story, and call it fate.