Three of the most difficult selection decisions facing NSW coach Laurie Daley heading into Origin II in Perth on Wednesday week centre on the No.18, No.19 and No.20 jerseys.
Daley is well aware that once the extended squad arrives in the Western Australian capital next weekend, he will no longer have the opportunity to bring in a late replacement should one of his players suffer an injury.
When there were concerns over Stephen Crichton after the centre suffered a corked thigh just two days out from game one, the Blues had the luxury of placing Canterbury teammate Matt Burton on stand-by.
If Crichton had been ruled out of the game, the Blues would have applied to the NRL for a special exemption to pick Burton from outside the original 20-man squad, and had him in Brisbane in a matter of hours.
However, requiring a player to fly five hours to the other side of the country less than two days before an Origin game is not ideal, which is why Daley knows he must nail it with the selection of his three reserves.
Laurie Daley knows he must nail his extended bench for game two.Credit: Getty Images
The fear of having Nathan Cleary or Mitchell Moses go down with an injury means Daley could yet opt against picking a fourth front-rower in favour of a playmaker like Jarome Luai on an extended bench.
NSW and Queensland must submit their final 19 players by Tuesday night before the game.
The Blues carried utility Campbell Graham as their 18th man in Brisbane, while Melbourne’s Stefano Utoikamanu and Manly’s Haumole Olakau’atu were No.19 and No.20 respectively.
For Perth, the Blues will look to Graham or even Burton in the back-up utility role, provided there are no fresh injuries between now and the time Daley picks his second squad.
The coach is a huge admirer of second-rower Olakau’atu, who is tipped to be on the plane to Perth, while the final spot on the bench will either be given to a playmaker or middle forward, pitting Wests Tigers’ Terrell May, Penrith’s Lindsay Smith, Manly’s Jake Trbojevic and South Sydney’s Keaon Koloamatangi in a four-way shootout.
Koloamatangi will start in the front row for just the fifth time on Sunday, but has a slight advantage over the others because of his ability to also play in the second row.
Souths coach Wayne Bennett would love to see Koloamatangi return to the Origin arena.
“It’s pretty hard to get into that NSW team, there are a lot of good players, but he wouldn’t let them down,” Bennett said on Saturday. “He needs to play well on Sunday to make sure the selectors are talking about him.
“I’ve been amazed at the fact that he can virtually play the full game and have the work rate that he has. It’s pretty exceptional. Not too many players can do that.”
The Parramatta-Canterbury game on Monday means the Blues will need to delay naming their squad until Monday night, while the Maroons, who only have Kurt Mann involved in that fixture, will release their squad on Monday morning. The big debate has been whether the Maroons will stick with Daly Cherry-Evans at halfback or replace him with North Queensland’s Tom Dearden.
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