The Maroons coach is weighing up what changes to make after they were thrashed in Game 1.
Andrew Johns has suggested Billy Slater should give Josh Papali’i a call and ask him to come out of rep retirement to play in State of Origin 2 for Queensland. And the Maroons coach has promised to “consider everyone” when picking his team for the second game of the series.
For the third game in a row, the Queensland forward pack were badly beaten by their NSW counterparts. The likes of Mo Fotuaika, Jeremiah Nanai, Reuben Cotter and Trent Loiero had little impact, while Tino Fa’asuamaleaui also struggled to assert his dominance.
Slater is being urged to pick Corey Horsburgh for Game 2 to try and add some steel and firepower to his forward pack. But Johns reckons Horsburgh’s Canberra teammate Papali’i might also come into calculations.
The 33-year-old Papali’i retired from representative footy in 2023, but Slater might be able to convince him to change his mind. On Sunday night against the Roosters he was immense, running for 112 metres from 13 carries in 41 minutes off the bench. He also had 17 tackles for just one miss, and made 58 post-contact metres with ball in hand.
Billy Slater responds amid calls to change Queensland team
Johns floated Papalii’s name when discussing what Slater might do for Game 2 on the Sunday Footy Show. “Everyone’s in consideration. You’ve got to consider everyone available,” Slater responded.
But when you’re throwing names up … you’ve got to take people out, too. You’ve got to be thinking, ‘Who are you going to replace them with and do they deserve that? Are they the best person for the position?’. At the end of the day, that’s what it comes down to.
“When you’re in the position of trying to select Queensland’s best footy team, you think about all different scenarios and you’re trying to assemble the best-possible team that you can put together for Queensland to go out and perform. So that’s what we’ll be doing.”
Reece Walsh, Murray Taulagi and Ben Hunt are all likely to come into calculations after missing Game 1 due to injuries. Dane Gagai also had a good game for Newcastle on Friday night against the Dragons, while Selwyn Cobbo was quiet for the Broncos in their loss to Manly.
Daly Cherry-Evans and Tom Dearden stake Origin cases
Slater’s biggest selection headache revolves around Daly Cherry-Evans. Many have called for the Maroons skipper to be axed, and Tom Dearden did himself plenty of favours with a starring performance for the Cowboys against the Tigers on Saturday night.
But Cherry-Evans was also sensational against Brisbane, whereas Cameron Munster failed to fire for Melbourne against the Gold Coast. Munster missed 10 tackles and produced one of the worst Origin performances of his career in Game 1. It remains a possibility that Slater could overlook the Storm five-eighth and pick DCE and Dearden.
Cameron Smith, who was previously an assistant to Slater, said the Maroons needed to beef up their back five. “I think when you look at NSW, they’ve got an aggressive back five, and I spoke in the lead-up to Game 1 that that was the part of the opposition team that I was most threatened by – their back five,” he said.
Most of their [the Blues’] carries are coming in the backfield, where you need those hard, tough carries. When your two wingers are carrying like that, it saves these blokes energy [the middle forwards].”
