Queensland team for State of Origin Game 1: Expert reaction

Kevin Walters has plumped for a blend of experience and even more experience for his first game picking the Maroons team for State of Origin 1, kindly blooding a rookie or two so pundits have something new to write about.

They aren’t the rookies we would’ve expected, though – a cheeky sneak out of a pre-season camp has Anthony Milford, Dylan Napa and Cameron Munster cooling their heels for another season at least.

But it’s the familiar names missing – Billy Slater, Will Chambers and the retired Justin Hodges – that will have Blues fans dreaming of Christmas in July once Origin 2016 is done and dusted.

Dream on, Blues fans. You’ve lived through most of this nightmare before…

» NSW Blues team for State of Origin Game 1: Expert reaction

1. Darius Boyd
After close to a decade running in tries off the left hip of Greg Inglis, Darius Boyd graduates to running lines off Cooper Cronk and Johnathan Thurston at their discretion. Tough gig.

Never mind that Boyd has barely needed his jersey washed across 23 games in maroon. He’s been in scintillating touch for the Broncos in 2016, showing off ball-playing smarts to match his crafty running game.

2. Corey Oates
Speaking of running in tries off GI, Corey Oates gets the plum gig this year after doing much the same outside Jack Reed for the Broncos this season.

So the game’s unlikeliest wing sensation should have a ball watching Greg Inglis swat Blues defenders away like flies, provided Oates can overcome the dizzy spells and heart palpitations that saw him sidelined early in the most recent Queensland derby.

Choppy Close reckons he won’t let Queensland down, so who am I to argue?

3. Greg Inglis
GI looks to be playing busted behind a busted Rabbitohs side at the moment, but no matter. He’s been known to grow an extra leg come Origin time, which should replace the heavily strapped right one he’s been hobbling around on quite nicely.

That’s last year’s pre-Origin series assessment of GI, which although technically a fortnight late for this season, will no doubt be recycled in some form or another come 2017.

Props to Madge for doing all rugby league fans a favour and shifting him out of the Rabbitohs’ No.1 jersey, where he spent much of the early season looking like someone had just shot his dog.

The GI V12 has hummed along just nicely ever since.

4. Justin O’Neill
Justin Hodges was a dummy-half run specialist, a bruising defender, and a niggler par excellence.

His successor Justin O’Neill is big, fast, and if 2016 NRL averages are taken as gospel will likely cross the tryline twice across a three-game Origin series.

Not the sort of like-for-like passing of the baton that has been a hallmark of Queensland’s dominance, but he’ll do the job asked of him because that’s how rookie Queenslanders roll.

5. Dane Gagai
Forget that the Knights have been unspeakably bad for much of 2016. Dane Gagai has been the textbook example of putting in 110 per cent for a badly beaten team, and has enough Maroons credit points built up after graduating through the emerging Origin camps and into the team for 2015’s series decider that he was always going to get a second shot at the title.

Has spent plenty of time at the back for the Knights this year so won’t fear the Reynolds/Maloney bombing raid, and is a devastating open-field runner should the thick blue line give him any cracks to peer through.

6. Johnathan Thurston
Just commission a sculptor and immortalise him in bronze already.

7. Cooper Cronk
If Cooper Cronk had pursued a career in public transport or classical music, you get the feeling he’d still be the conductor.

Unlike the guy in the orchestra pit he generally keeps a low profile at Origin level, steering the virtuosos around the field while delivering the occasional dramatic flourish from 40-odd metres out to seal classic victories.

And he just so happens to have run back into his best form for the Storm in the thick of rep season. Fancy that.

8. Matt Scott
If Matt Scott gets on top of his front-row opponents, Queensland win.

9. Cameron Smith
If scrums were ever properly policed again, Cameron Smith could pack with a loose arm and both feet across to win one against the head without attracting any attention. That’s how wily he is.

The game’s best referee somehow keeps fending off challengers to his mantle as the game’s best hooker as well. A genius at controlling the ruck, and good for as many tackles as the brutes in Blue want to throw at him.

10. Nate Myles
Veteran prop Nate Myles is no doubt breathing a silent thank you that his grandfather’s audition as Maroons selector has been ignored, with Kevin Walters and co keeping faith in the forehead that’s led the Queensland pack to many of its most famous victories (and even shone in some of its toughest defeats).

Myles runs hard, tackles hard, and barely flinches when Paul Gallen punches him twice in the side of the head while he’s not looking, singlehandedly ending Origin brawls for everyone. Nice one, Gal.

11. Matt Gillett
Perennial ‘how did he make the side?’ (at least in my neck of the universe) pick Matt Gillett is now an automatic Maroons selection, and I’ve finally worked out why.

In Broncos colours the bloke has an uncanny knack for just being everywhere, especially in defence, and has the agility of an old-style centre when running the ball to boot.

12. Sam Thaiday
The days of the devastating Lockyer-Slater-Thaiday triangle plays on the right edge are but a distant memory for Maroons fans now, with Thaiday now reduced to a bench role at club level. He still gets a starting spot for the Maroons though. Go figure.

The new role suits Thaiday. Take the field after 20 minutes, rage across the paddock like a slightly less enraged Raging Bull, be third man into a ‘fight’ or two, rage off, repeat, do victory lap.

His job satisfaction must be close to unquantifiable.

13. Corey Parker
The old war horse is trudging along on a busted hoof at the moment, and has this season largely pocketed the offload which (as predicted) helped tear the Blues to shreds in Game 3 last year.

If he decides to unleash it while Boyd and Morgan lurk with intent the game could open up early, though we’d expect him to just rack up the big carries and defensive strikes until the Maroons machine finds itself finely tuned.

He’ll likely laugh in David Klemmer’s face if the young Blues firebrand barks anything about respect at him, and well he might.

14. Michael Morgan
It took Queensland until the third game of 2015 to work out what to do with Michael Morgan in a squad already littered with champion playmakers and speedsters.

Granted party time had already started by the time he took the field against a demoralised Blues outfit, but it was in that Lang Park demolition job that he stamped his class on Origin football.

A roving commission suits the Cowboys livewire, and he’ll benefit from having a familiar right-edge friend in O’Neill in his general vicinity when he eventually takes the field.

He and JT seem combine famously as well.

15. Josh McGuire
The Broncos hard man has a jersey collection that club teammate Anthony Milford surely covets after adding the green and gold of Australia to his Samoa and Queensland kits of 2014/15 respectively.

McGuire’s battering ram hit-ups and general lack of self-preservation make him just the sort of psychopath this ageing Queensland pack needs after the traditional softening-up period has suitably softened up the opposition.

16. Aidan Guerra
While most Queenslanders are generally happy to see Mitchell Pearce on the park, none would’ve been happier than Aidan Guerra upon Pearce’s Round 9 return to NRL action. Starting at five-eighth in a bid to kickstart the ruffled Roosters’ season didn’t totally disagree with Guerra, but it’s running on an edge where he excels.

And much like his back row brother from another mother on the other side of the park, he can jink his way through tired defenders without ever shirking the rough stuff.

17. Josh Papalii
Don’t worry if you haven’t seen much of Josh Papalii in action this year – neither have much of the Nine commentary team.

But this long-suffering Raiders fan has put in enough hard yards this season to assure the Queensland faithful that big Papa has been bruising, bustling, and generally barnstorming when given quality early ball on the green machine’s left edge.

Whichever of the five centres NSW have named will confront Papalii and GI must already be having nightmares.