You hear him before you see him. That booming laugh echoing off the concrete walls of the Blues' Coffs Harbour base, lightening the most serious of moods.
That's Andrew Fifita. A free spirit whose next word or action off the field is as unpredictable as what he does on the field.
The young players in the camp these days seem to gravitate towards him. Matt Moylan and Adam Reynolds – they love the big guy.
But Fifita admits there was a time in NSW camp when his relaxed attitude and larger than life personality rubbed his teammates up the wrong way.
"In previous years I was the young rookie who was most probably a bit loud for their liking," Fifita recalls.
While coach Laurie Daley has never publicly admitted it, even he has held reservations over Fifita's influence in camp.
Fifita has heard all the whispers. He's heard how distracting he can be. And he knows that not everyone is going to take a liking to the way he approaches both life and football.
But the 26-year-old says even the threat of representative snubbing won't force him to change his personality to fit in with the perception of what it is to be a professional footballer.
"I'm a different kind of character," Fifita said.
"I don't change for nothing. This is who I am. I trust myself before anything else. I haven't heard anything from anyone but I've heard a few rumours about me. I know the blokes in the team, especially this year's team, I get along with all of them. I grew up playing with most of the western Sydney boys. Wadeo [Wade Graham], Sauce [Josh Mansour], Matt Moylan, Woodsy [Aaron Woods] … It's quite a tight-knit group.
"Sometimes in other years I got a sense I was a bit too out there for some of the boys, but it's a new year, a new time and I'm fitting in. This is who I am. They've seen me now and in game one how I'm like. I'm not going to change for nothing. I let my footy do the talking. I think it goes on form – let's hope it does anyway. I'm just trying to do myself, my family and my state proud."
There's loud, and then there's Fifita.
That sound booming across the golf course in camp one – that was just Fifita bursting into laughter when Reynolds fell into the bushes trying to find his ball after an errant shot.
It's only on a football field do you see a more serious side to the Blacktown junior.
"When you get me on the training paddock and on the footy field it's all business," he said.
"But when it's time to get off it, I try and get away from footy as much as I can. I get as far away from it. In camp you're living and breathing footy so I just try and have a laugh with the boys.
"It's one of the best feelings getting away from footy, that's how I deal with it."
There was a suggestion Fifita would again be overlooked for selection this series purely based on the perception he can be a disruptive influence in camp.
But his red hot form at Cronulla demanded a position in the team and made it impossible for Daley to snub the prop if NSW are to be a chance of reclaiming the Origin shield.
"I heard a few rumours about that," Fifita said.
"When they rang me to tell me I was in the team I didn't realise it was a squad. But I think I let my footy do the talking in game one. They're the selectors, and if they weren't going to go with me they knew what was best for the team.
"Once I got picked I knew I had a job to do, to prove to them and to prove to myself that I still had it in me. I thought I proved myself right in the end. I think it got me where I am now."
