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WILL LUAI STEP UP AFTER LATE CALL-UP FOR INJURED MOSES?

There is no doubting Jarome Luai’s ability to step up in the absence of injured five-eighth Mitchell Moses, but his preparation for Origin II is hardly ideal.

The Tigers had the bye last round, so Luai is coming into an Origin game having not played for two and a half weeks and with just two or three training sessions with the team.

In Luai’s favour, he comes into a largely similar team to the one he helped guide to a series victory last year and partners a man in Nathan Cleary that he has won four premierships with.

The 28-year-old has played 10 Origins for the Blues in the no.6 jersey, but has been plying his trade at halfback for the Tigers this season.

It’s been a hard slog at times for Luai in the new role, he’s been mostly pretty solid for the improving Tigers.

While it should be like riding a bike returning to the no.6 jersey alongside Cleary, Luai will have to make adjustments and there could be growing pains.

However, Matty Johns believes moving back to five-eighth will be a huge weight off Luai’s shoulders.

So much so, it has led Johns to make a massive call.

“He’s my man of the match,” Johns said of Luai..

“I think with the lesser responsibility, he’ll go out and there and play really free.”

Cleary will also have to assume the lion’s share of the kicking duties again without Moses’ long boot beside him.

Cronk said the Blues will miss Moses, but stressed the Maroons must be on high alert with Luai and his ad lib style of footy.

“Jarome Luai if I’m trying to predict this, he’s going to sit on the left hand side and he’s going to wait until he gets the advantage and say Nathan give me the ball,” Cronk said.

“He will drop off Nathan and threaten the middle of the field.

“He will be more of a running threat through the middle of the field than Mitch Moses.”

Luai is also a player the Maroons love to play against because of his run-ins with them in the past, most notably picking Sewlyn Cobbo up off the ground when he didn’t realise he was concussed.

Luai’s passion for Origin brings a lot to the spectacle of the game, but if he doesn’t harness it properly it has the potential to backfire at times and Cameron Munster and co will be looking to exploit that and get under his skin.

WILL MAKING MUNSTER CAPTAIN PROVE A MASTERSTOKE OR FAILURE?

There is no doubting Cameron Munster’s passion for the Queensland jersey and after 19 Origins he deserves his chance to lead his State.

Munster has grown as a leader over the course of his career and has filled the captaincy role for the Storm in recent seasons when injuries have struck.

However, Munster has historically shown he plays the game on the edge and his competitive fire has the potential to go overboard at times.

The Origin arena is probably the best place for him to be skipper because referees usually don’t nit-pick as much, but that was not the case in game one.

Cronk – a former Storm teammate of Munster – says the five-eighth will relish in the leadership role and it will spark an all-important fast start for the Maroons.

“Munster’s leadership is not going to be fluff,” Cronk said.

“It’s not going to be words of wisdom, it’s going to be, ‘alright what do I need to do here?’.

“He’s going to run, he’s going to tackle and he’s just going to be really aggressive in the way he approaches it.

“Queensland won’t miss the start. I don’t think they miss the start.”

With that said, Munster needs to get the balance right between trying to motivate his team and deliver with his own performance, while not overstepping the mark and giving away silly penalties.

It is not as if Queensland didn’t have other options to lead the team with Harry Grant and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui both captaining their their club teams.

Munster could prove an inspired choice as captain, but there is still an element of the unknown with how he will react to the role and how it will effect his own performance.

WILL UTOIKAMANU GET HIS ORIGIN REDEMPTION?

Stefano Utoikamanu will play his second game of Origin after being included to replace the injured Mitch Barnett.

The Storm star played just 15 minutes in his Origin debut in 2023, before he was discarded by then coach Brad Fittler.

Since then Utoikamanu has moved from the Tigers to Melbourne as part of a plan to get the best out of himself as a player under Craig Bellamy.

So far he is on track for that aim, with the Storm considered title favourites and in the top four and Utoikamanu is back in the Origin arena in his first season at the club.

However, Utoikamanu will have to alter his approach coming off the bench as opposed to starting with the Storm and the Blues will need impact and energy from the giant front-rower.

He also needs to be careful not expending too much nervous energy on game day or he could tire himself out and be exhausted before he even gets on the field.

But if Utoikamanu can do his job and the rest of the Blues do the same, he can be a part of a Blues Origin series win, which no one can take away from him, and also set himself up for a long career in the Blues jersey.

WILL DROPPING STARS TO THE BENCH SPARK THE MAROONS?

One of the more puzzling decisions from Queensland was the call to drop Jeremiah Nanai and Pat Carrigan to the bench for game two.

Carrigan was arguably the Maroons’ best player with 110 metres and a team high 45 tackles, while Nanai ran for 43 metres from just six runs and has 32 tackles.

Granted, the pair missed six tackles each, but they were not alone with the Queensland team missing a whopping 54 tackles for the night.

The move is likely designed to let Trent Loiero and Kurt Capewell take the sting out of the Blues in the early stages and give Carrigan and Nanai the chance to make inroads and potentially play the rest of the game after coming on to give more flexibility with their interchanges.

However, if the Blues get away to a fast start as they did in game one, they may be too hard for Queensland to catch by the time the cavalry arrives.

Perth is also historically a place the Maroons have struggled with the fast surface and one feels they needed to get off to a fast start to exorcise those demons and take the challenge to the Blues.

CAN CAPEWELL OVERCOME DEFENSIVE DEFICIENCIES?

Kurt Capewell has been a loyal servant for the Maroons, but apart from his recall to the team last year, he hadn’t played for his state since 2022.

The 31-year-old replaced Jeremiah Nanai in the back row, but both players have weaknesses with their defence, so it is hardly fixing that area of the game fo Queensland.

And Nanai offers a lot more in attack with his running game and ability in the air off kicks than Capewell, so it is hard to see what area he improves the starting team in.

Granted, Capewell is playing solid footy for a team in the Warriors, who are entrenched in the top four.

But Origin is for the best players, not just solid players from the best teams.

When David Fifita was overlooked for Capewell last year it didn’t work out too well for the Maroons, so it remains to be seen what has changed a year later.

WHO WILL WIN THE BATTLE OF THE COACHES?

Billy Slater had praise heaped on him from all quarters after guiding the Maroons to two series wins in his first two years at the helm.

However, like Brad Fittler who did the same, he is starting to learn how difficult it is to coach at Origin level when you are losing.

Every selection gets put under the microscope and every mounting loss fires up the blowtorch more on the coach.

One of the most important roles of Origin coaches and any coach is selection and it is fair to say over the last two series, Slater has made a few wrong turns.

Time will tell if his decision to drop Daly Cherry-Evans and Beau Fermor for Tom Dearden, Kurt Capewell and Kurt Mann will pay off.

The decision to stick with out of form captain Kalyn Ponga over Broncos superstar Reece Walsh was also an interesting decision.

On the other side Laurie Daley got plenty of praise after the Blues’ commanding performance in game one, but he knows from his first stint in charge of NSW how hard it is when you start losing.

Helping him this season is the guidance of master coach Craig Bellamy, while he has an excellent team at his disposal, who are coming off a series win.

However, the loss of Mitch Barnett and Mitchell Moses in key positions has the potential to derail his charge for a series win in Perth.

While selections will be under the spotlight on Wednesday it is also up to the coach’s to get their substitutions right and their tactics, so time will tell if Daley leads NSW to back-to-back Shields or Slater leads the Maroons to a decider.