{"id":695310,"date":"2026-05-26T08:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/695310\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T08:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:38:15","slug":"state-of-origin-2026-billy-slater-reveals-how-jai-arrow-will-be-involved-in-queensland-camp-mnd-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/695310\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin 2026: Billy Slater reveals how Jai Arrow will be involved in Queensland camp, MND diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland coach Billy Slater has described Jai Arrow as \u201cthe life of the party\u201d after the Maroons invited him into camp ahead of the series opener a week after he was forced to retire from rugby league following a devastating motor neurone disease diagnosis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Arrow played 12 games for his beloved Maroons and will be a source of inspiration for the entire state after the Rabbitohs veteran medically retired last week.<\/p>\n

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Slater played with Arrow during the 2018 Origin series and made sure that the workhorse forward was brought into the team environment ahead of the first game in Sydney, with Arrow joining the group for dinner in Parramatta on Monday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cJai is one of those guys that loves being around his mates, his teammates, a footy environment. He\u2019s the life of the party, and that was no different last night,\u201d the Maroons coach said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see Jai laughing and joking with his teammates, it was a really cool environment to be in. We just thought that it was really important that we bring Jai in for Jai.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing was it was a great opportunity to celebrate Jai\u2019s career. We all know the journey that he\u2019s embarking on, and it\u2019s going to be a really tough one. We\u2019re all there for him as Queenslanders, as members of the rugby league community. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the end of the day, he\u2019s also retiring from rugby league, and we can\u2019t forget that. So us as Queenslanders, we certainly acknowledged our player 196 last night and celebrated what he brought in the Maroon jersey, so that was a pretty cool time as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slater paid tribute to AFL legend Neale Daniher, who died on Monday after a lengthy battle with MND. Daniher, the 2025 Australian of the Year, raised millions of dollars for MND research.<\/p>\n

Slater acknowledged the difficult road ahead for Arrow and said his presence this week had a huge impact on the team.<\/p>\n

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‘Jai will be with the team for the game’ | 00:50<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing that I love about Jai is he\u2019s reliable. He\u2019s hard, he\u2019s tough, but being a reliable mate and a reliable teammate, that\u2019s one thing that I love about Jai,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis words when he did an interview with (Channel 9 reporter) Danika Mason, I thought the fact that he wants to inspire people is pretty inspirational. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people like Jai go through adversity and tough times and they\u2019re thinking about others and what they can do for others, that\u2019s a pretty cool legacy to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe players have been great, and to be honest, it\u2019s not about the players; it\u2019s about Jai. The decision to bring Jai in was purely to support him. He\u2019s giving a whole heap of inspiration, but the decision to bring him in was not to inspire the group. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was certainly to be around him and support him. But the boys get a kick out of seeing their mate as well, and he\u2019s still the same Jai. He\u2019s obviously going through a bit, and his speech is failing him a little bit, but he\u2019s still got the same sense of humour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell he still loves being a Queenslander, and I think they got a big kick out of it. He\u2019s definitely going to be in our company come game night. He\u2019ll be on the bus coming to the game and he\u2019ll be with the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE ORIGIN NEWS<\/p>\n

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‘Great to see Jai with his QLD mates’ | 00:58<\/p>\n

On the field, Slater downplayed any injury concerns over Cameron Munster after the Queensland captain sat out Sunday\u2019s field session. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a bit of tightness. Unfortunately, it wasn\u2019t in the throat and his voice box because that\u2019s still pretty loose,\u201d Slater said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he\u2019s good. I suppose when you get a little bit older and you get to the back end of your career, you need those modifications. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, the week is surrounded about playing your best football on Wednesday night, and that\u2019s tomorrow night. So the decisions you make in and around the week is all pointed towards being at your physical and mental best and having the team prepared as best they can for Wednesday night. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe just felt the other day that it was best for Cam just to have a session off, freshen his body up, and he\u2019ll have a run around this afternoon and he\u2019ll be right to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

ULTIMATE GUIDE: Everything you need to know ahead of the 2026 State of Origin series<\/a><\/p>\n

Sam Walker will make his Origin debut in front of 80,000 fans in Sydney. Picture: Bradley Kanaris\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Munster will partner Origin rookie Sam Walker who has been told by his captain and coach to be himself and to not try to play like other Queensland halves. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very unique style of player, and I\u2019ve been pleasantly surprised with his skill level,\u201d Slater said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know he\u2019s a very creative little player, and that\u2019s probably enhanced my opinion spending the week with him. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s quite a level-headed, quiet sort of lad, so he\u2019s had a great week. I\u2019m looking forward to seeing him get out there and get his game on. Our aim is to help him do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queensland coach Billy Slater has described Jai Arrow as \u201cthe life of the party\u201d after the Maroons invited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-695310","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\/695310","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=695310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}