With State of Origin just around the corner, Billy Slater gives a rare insight into the pressure and preparation behind selecting a Queensland team. After Tom Dearden\u2019s injury rocked the Maroons picture, Billy explains why selection decisions sit with him and why he\u2019s been watching every Queensland player closely for the past 10 weeks.
\nBilly and Peter Psaltis break down the Cowboys\u2019 heartbreaking loss to Parramatta, the impact of Dearden\u2019s injury, and the growing debate around Queensland\u2019s halves and bench makeup under the new 19-man squad rules. There\u2019s also a deep dive into the changing speed of the modern game, why recovery and fitness are becoming more important than ever, and whether Origin itself is evolving.
\nPlus, Melbourne finally snap their losing streak, Billy shares a funny airport moment with Terrell May, the Raiders and Panthers produce a classic in Canberra, young halves continue to emerge across the NRL, and Billy opens up emotionally on the Stories of Origin Podcast and the game that meant the most to his hometown of Innisfail.
\nAnd a Magic Round preview\u2026 \u201cschoolies for adults.\u201d <\/p>\n
2 days ago54:48<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With State of Origin just around the corner, Billy Slater gives a rare insight into the pressure and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-667074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}