Selwyn Cobbo leaves Suncorp Stadium on a medicab after three minutes of the 2022 decider.Credit:Getty
“Four out of the last six Origin games,we’ve had to replace an outside back. If that happens again,well,Selwyn’s a wonderful player to have on a bench.”
As the game’s best hooker,Harry Grant has given Queensland a double-pronged dummy-half attack with Ben Hunt – and a genuinely weaponised bench – that NSW has tried and failed to replicate.
Alongside Cobbo,Titans prop Mo Fotuaika and debutant J’maine Hopgood,Slater’s is a smaller bench,but an injury to every single starting Maroons player is covered considering Hunt can play halves and Cobbo centre,wing and fullback.
Maguire has picked,first and foremost,on form. And perhaps Sunday’s forecast 50mm of rain on what is typically a dewy,slippery Accor Stadium surface.
A four-forward bench of Yeo,Spencer Leniu,Haumole Olakau’atu and Hudson Young lends itself to that,even with Young and Yeo being especially mobile.
But cover for every single starting position though in case of injury,HIA or miscellaneous misadventure?
“I’ve got all that covered with the people that I know and coaches that[I have] spoken to at different clubs,” Maguire said,with the upbeat air of a coach yet to be dragged through the wringer of an Origin loss.
“They’ve done a little bit of practice at different times for me,so I’m really comfortable with what we’ve gone[with].”
Back-rowers Angus Crichton and Young loom as the most likely forwards to shuffle wider if needed,and Cameron McInnes offers dummy-half cover. But there is little in the way of back-up forhalfback Nicho Hynes,who is carrying that niggling calf issue.
The sight of Tom Trbojevic going down last year,and Damien Cook replacing him at centre,still haunts NSW fans.Credit:Getty
NSW fans might not be as comfortable as Maguire,recalling Cook’s honourable,but often out-of-position efforts as a makeshift centre with last year’s series on the line.
Especially given an AAP analysis counted23 games this year where a team has lost at least one winger,centre or fullback to injury at or before halftime.
Losing an outside back early on translates to a win percentage of just 26,with the Dragons the latest team to add to that statistic after Jack Bird went down against Canterbury last Thursday.
And as we all know,and the NRL spells out with statistics at every opportunity,Origin is the hardest,fastest game in town.
NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9&9Now