A GIANT blue cattle dog will be paraded on the back of a truck at the NSW team's training session today, as the Blues' inaugural State of Origin captain, Tommy Raudonikis, attempts to stir passion for Wednesday's decider and promote his never-say-die canine as the emblem of the state's rugby league team. "A cattle dog would be a perfect state emblem," he said. "He never gives up. He's loyal. He's got a good constitution.

"I want our NSW players to get a little bit of the blue cattle dog's spirit into their bodies. They were dreadful in the second game in Brisbane. Terrible."

In an initiative exclusively of his own doing, the six-metre long inflatable cattle dog will be driven to Cronulla's Toyota Stadium, where NSW will train at 10.30am.

"The dog's a big bastard," the 1980 NSW captain said. "He's a pumped up one, just like I hope the players will be at Homebush for the decider. There will be music playing to stir them up as well."

The truck will travel to suburbs where the code is strong.

"It'll go to Parramatta, Campbelltown, Balmain and probably to the Coogee hotel where the players are staying," he rasped in his mouthful of tacks manner. "We've got to get the players and supporters to realise this is a do-or-die game."

While "Tom Terrific" is not exactly promoting mayhem, he believes Origin has become too sanitised. "Australians love a fight," he said. "If we lose that part of our character, we're gone."

The former Western Suburbs and Newtown champion isn't being totally altruistic in his desire to see Sydney turn barking mad for the Blues. There is the small matter of cattledog.com.au, the site which sells his three varieties of T-shirt.

"There's a shirt with a picture of the dog with the slogan, 'A cattle dog doesn't play well with others'," he said. "There's the ferocious cattle dog one and there's another with a NSW dog punching a Queensland dog."

Forever blessed with entrepreneurial zeal, Raudonikis secured the cattle dog brand from Classic Sportswear.

"They signed the brand over to me," he said. "I own it. T-shirt sales should reach 3500 to 4000."

NSWRL chief executive Geoff Carr said existing licensing agreements would need to be studied to determine if the cattle dog could become the team's official mascot.

"If I had a choice, I'd take the cattle dog over the cockroach every time," he said. "The cockroach and the [Queensland] cane toad have never been the official emblems of the states. There's been a fair bit of memorabilia manufactured around the cockroach and the cane toad and a popular belief we've endorsed them as emblems but we haven't.

"To Tommy's credit, he came to tell us what he was doing with the cattle dog shirts."

Raudonikis's next marketing venture could be cattle dog beer, linking up with Sydney's John Singleton, who recently sold his Bluetongue brand to Coca-Cola.

"I've implanted the seed in Singo's head to do a cattle dog beer," he said. "It would be just the thing to have after an Origin game or one of those treks where Singo takes his mates to Kokoda, or Borneo or Mount Kilimanjaro.

"I reckon the third Origin game will be like one of these walks - hard and cruel but when you've done it, you feel on top of the world. That's what my dog will be barking when he sees them train."