Queensland coach Mal Meninga on Friday will officially confirm Billy Slater’s audacious bid to play in Wednesday night’s State of Origin decider is over.
Slater had a secret fitness test in Melbourne on Thursday and is understood to have made an early decision to give the Queensland team plenty of time to make the necessary adjustment.
Dave Taylor opens up about Origin III
Greg Inglis will relocate to his club role at fullback with Melbourne’s Dane Nielsen playing just his third Origin game at left centre.
D-Day for the Maroons will also bring bad news for giant South Sydney forward Dave Taylor, who is tipped to lose his place on the bench to bustling Brisbane utility Ben Te’o who provides insurance in the back-row and also the centres.
Te’o, who has been Queensland’s 18th man in the past, will get his maiden Maroons jumper on the bench, with Meninga anxious to match NSW’s aggression with the damaging Brisbane utility.
Meninga will end the guessing games on Friday after a meeting with grieving North Queensland prop Matt Scott who enters camp four days late after attending his mother Dianne’s funeral in Ilfracombe on Wednesday.
Meninga will take Scott’s emotional state into account before settling on his final 17-man squad.
With Taylor paying the price for his disappointing performance in Sydney, Te’o will join a bench which will include Canberra’s Dave Shillington and his Brisbane teammates Ben Hannant and Matt Gillett.
It means Taylor and North Queensland fullback Matt Bowen will be released to play for their NRL clubs at the weekend.
“I’ll make all those decision tomorrow (Friday) after I speak with Matt Scott and get a report on Billy,” Meninga said after the squad again trained in the wet at Coolum.
“It would be a huge loss to lose someone like Billy but we’ve got a great squad here with guys who are willing and very capable of filling the role,” said Queensland’s man-of-the-moment Petero Civoniceva who will play his 33rd and final Origin.
Civoniceva said he had been so focused getting his preparation right for the decider that he hadn’t thought about it being his last Origin game.
“I guess I learned a lot out of Darren (Lockyer’s) last game last year and the way he handled it.
“It was all about our preparation, the focus being on our training.
“If we get that right, if we get a bit of luck on the night and we play really well and get a win, that’s the best way to go out.”
While conceding NSW will come to Brisbane high on confidence after winning in Sydney, Civoniceva said Queensland had not played to its potential in either Origin yet.
“We’re the first to acknowledge NSW were very good in the first two games but we’ve let ourselves down by poor ball security and our execution hasn’t been up to the standard we set in the past,” he said.
“We set standards and we have values within the team that we need to uphold every time we walk out onto the field.
“We’re honest with ourselves and we know we have been down so we have to put in the hard work and make sure we get it right on the night.”
Skinny
Guest
He is useless in his attack on the right Boyd was the best choice. But now he will be having more time with the ball and could cause havoc. I know Sticky will be having somthing special up his sleeve.
tonysalerno
Roar Guru
Hindsight is a beautiful thing- but good call early mate; it was the best option of Queensland come origin 3.
Worlds biggest
Guest
Slater is without peer retrieving kicks, he is so difficult to kick to as he covers so much ground with his speed. This may provide opportunities for the Blues kicking game provided they're on. GI is a beast returning the ball, the Blues defence on the kick chase needs to be spot on. Obviously no Slater is a bonus for the Blues however the worrying aspect is the Maroons are yet to play anywhere near there potential. The Blues pack need to step up even more and provide the platform for Pearce and Carney.
GrecoRoman
Roar Guru
Agreed. Pluses outweigh the minuses for mind. He'll be given the green light to hang off the runners like Slater does and this will cause NSW headaches.
spek
Guest
his defense will be tested and as others have said Pearce rolling grubbers into the try zone would be a big test for GI but at the moment Pearce does not seem to capable of that play. right now he is a one trick pony in qld 25 bomb, bomb, bomb etc.. I think GI will be v. solid under the high ball and has already defused a number of dangerous Pearce bombs. Carney needs to take the ball away fom Pearce on the Qld 25 and either run at the line or try to roll the ball behind the denfense. Still whatever problems GI may have in defense and critically positioning i think will be more than made up with returning the ball out of his own 25. he will ahve a lot more speace to move and could have some massive plays coming into the line behind Thurston or Cronk.Also he wont have Morris marking up in his face like the last two games. While morris has not been much of threat with the ball in hand hehas been reasonable in containign GI so far. overall the spine is stronger with GI playing full back rather than in the centres. spek
Roarsome
Guest
I think Inglis is lazy in defense, much like Hayne. Plenty of exciting moments in attack though which is where the focus is. We'll see how committed he is in a chasing down a cross field kick with 20 to go. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
eagleJack
Guest
I tend to agree with you Andy. I think he will be a brilliant fullback but he isn't there yet. His positioning for deep kicks is ok but close to the line for grubbers etc he is light years behind Slater. Also he runs brilliantly down the left edge when joining the backline. But on the right edge he looks a little lost. The Broncos identified this last week and held off him and were able to bundle him into touch. Such things won't have been lost on Sticky. Inglis is a great player. But Slater is phenomenal.
Andy
Guest
I think Greg Inglis will get found out defensively, he is not as good as Stewart or Slater. As a NSW fan it has improved our chances of winning origin 3.
steve b
Roar Guru
I new Mal would play GI at fullback he is wasted on the wing,, this way he can jime in both sides,, makes him very dangerous,,,this could be hell for NSW...