“He’s a resilient young man. He’s had his fair share of things go wrong with his family and some personal matters, and he has overcome those.

“He has worked his way up from playing club football in the Penrith district, through the Ron Massey and NSW Cup, so he has gone the long way about it but it’s fantastic to see.”

Falls has been catapulted into the Panthers’ No. 6 jersey vacated by NSW five-eighth Jarome Luai, who joins Cleary as one of six Penrith players in a State of Origin side coached by another St Dominic’s College old boy in Brad Fittler.

He partners Sean O’Sullivan in a new-look halves pairing to take on the Bulldogs. Of the six new inclusions in Ivan Cleary’s side this week, Falls is the only debutant.

But the 25-year-old isn’t one to take a backward step – Peake experienced that first-hand when he got into a scuffle with his former pupil during an A-grade game after Falls had left school.

“I called him to apologise, because I was supposed to be the teacher,” Peake laughed. “He’s an all-round athlete but for some reason he didn’t really get those opportunities in the junior rep systems for rugby league. I’m not sure why he was overlooked so many times, but he has always had this ability to go on with rugby league.”

The Panthers are 11-1 leading into Friday night’s clash and enter as favourites despite being undermanned against a Bulldogs side bolstered by Josh Addo-Carr.

Twelve months ago they slipped up at the same time to suffer their first defeat of the season, but Panthers forward Mitch Kenny is confident they can avoid making the same mistake as coach Cleary drafts in a host of players from Penrith’s ladder-leading NSW Cup side.

“Not to make excuses at all, but last year it probably didn’t help that the guys who were coming in weren’t playing much footy at all,” Kenny said.

“This year those combinations have been able to work together in reserve grade and that side is firing really well. Those boys are flying high and will hopefully come into this game with a lot of confidence.

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“Watching your mates make their debut and getting to live out their childhood dreams is obviously a really special thing to be a part of. Coming into this Origin period, we probably all had it in the back of our minds that Fallsy would play, but for it to finally get confirmed, we’re just so stoked for him.”

Watch the State of Origin exclusively live and free on Channel 9 and 9Now.

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