{"id":696034,"date":"2026-05-26T16:41:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/696034\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T16:41:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:41:13","slug":"state-of-origin-2026-news-nsw-blues-vs-queensland-maroons-burning-questions-analysis-mitchell-moses-injury-cruels-nathan-cleary-quest-for-origin-dominance-andrew-johns-explains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/696034\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin 2026 news, NSW Blues vs Queensland Maroons burning questions analysis, Mitchell Moses injury cruels Nathan Cleary quest for Origin dominance, Andrew Johns explains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teams are named and preparation is completed for Wednesday night’s State of Origin<\/a> series opener.<\/p>\n

Queensland<\/a> returns to Sydney’s Accor Stadium hoping to emulate the performance of game three last year, when the Maroons stunned the Blues to pinch the coveted shield.<\/p>\n

New South Wales<\/a> is still smarting from that loss and will be desperate to make amends in front of a home crowd.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Blues forced into major spine change<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Bombers sack coach after 12-month nightmare<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Magnussen fires back at McEvoy over Enhanced Games ‘flop’<\/a><\/p>\n

But there are several burning questions lingering over the contest ahead of kick off.<\/p>\n

CAN NEW BLUE HANDLE THE HEAT?<\/p>\n

Ethan Strange has been parachuted into the Blues halves after Mitchell Moses was ruled out with a hamstring injury<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The Raiders five-eighth is just 21 years old and has only 55 NRL games behind him, but plenty of people are tipping him to succeed on the game’s biggest stage.<\/p>\n

At 92 kilograms he can hold his own against the NRL’s best, and he’s coming off a season in which he won the Dally M Five-Eighth of the Year award and toured with the Kangaroos to England.<\/p>\n

“Ethan’s been training with us all week, so there is no issue there,” coach Laurie Daley said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 State of Origin series live and free exclusively on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Ethan<\/p>\n

Ethan Strange of the Raiders in action.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“He didn’t give much away, Ethan, I don’t think too much fazes him to be honest with you.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always loved Ethan as a player. I like the way he plays, and at this level if you’ve got a strong running game and you want to challenge the defence… there is a lot of fatigue at this level so if he just backs his instincts, he will play well. I’m not worried about Ethan.”<\/p>\n

NSW captain Isaah Yeo gave an insight into what opposition players think of the young Raiders No.6.<\/p>\n

“We played them a couple of weeks ago and we were laughing about how hard he is to tackle,” Yeo said.<\/p>\n

“He’s only got to bring half that to that arena and he’s going to be a handful.”<\/p>\n

Strange and Cleary have only one day to figure out to play side by side in the halves.<\/p>\n

WILL WALKER’S SHOULDERS HOLD UP?<\/p>\n

Queensland also have an Origin debutant in the halves, after Sam Walker<\/a> won the race to replace the injured Tom Dearden in the No.7 jumper.<\/p>\n

While he is highly talented with a football Walker has one of the slightest frames in the NRL, officially listed at just 78kg – a whole 14kg less than Strange.<\/p>\n

Prior to his selection, Queensland greats Corey Parker and Sam Thaiday both cast doubt on his ability to defend at Origin level<\/a>, with the latter suggesting the halfback is “going to have to have two sets of shoulder pads on”.<\/p>\n

Walker could only smirk at those comments when they were put to him by Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

“I’m working as hard as I can on my football, I’m doing everything I can do in my control at the moment,” Walker said before Slater’s team was confirmed.<\/p>\n

“Everyone is going to have their own opinions. I can’t control that, all I can do is keep working hard at training and keep doing my best performances on the weekend.<\/p>\n

“(Angus Crichton<\/a>) has made it hard for me at training the last couple years, having that big body I have to handle there. It’s been really good, if you can tackle players like that it makes tackling anyone on the weekend a bit easier.”<\/p>\n

If Walker plays on the right-hand side of the field as expected, he is going to have Blues backrower Hudson Young terrorising him all night.<\/p>\n

His Queensland body guards will have their work cut out to ensure he doesn’t get flattened.<\/p>\n

WILL LATE CHANGE CRUEL CLEARY’S QUEST?<\/p>\n

The knock on champion halfback Nathan Cleary has always been his inability to dominate a State of Origin contest, like many great No.7s before him.<\/p>\n

“That’s the storyline around Origin and Nath, but I don’t see it like that,” Daley said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“If we are reliant on Nathan Cleary to go out and get man of the match then we are kidding ourselves. I don’t see it like Nath has to own Origin.”<\/p>\n

\"Nathan<\/p>\n

Nathan Cleary during Blues training.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Blues icon Andrew Johns recently said Cleary’s only feat left to tick off in rugby league is owning an Origin series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the injury to Moses could rob him of the chance to do that on Wednesday night in Sydney.<\/p>\n

On last week’s Immortal Behaviour, Johns explained how Moses would play a traditional halfback role at first receiver and allow Cleary to weave his magic out the back.<\/p>\n

“If you go and watch the 2023 grand final, the final 20 minutes which is the greatest halfback performance in a big game, he was playing second receiver, and carved them up,” Johns said of Cleary’s masterclass to beat the Broncos in the 2023 NRL decider.<\/p>\n

With Strange now debuting at five-eighth it will be up to Cleary to run the whole show.<\/p>\n

Before the injury to Moses, Johns was backing Cleary to dominate the series.<\/p>\n

“Those certain games, or those series, where you look at it and go, ‘they won it’ – that’s the challenge for Nathan, and he knows that, he has said it publicly,” the eighth Immortal said.<\/p>\n

“I reckon this series will be the one, without a doubt. I think at clubland I’m watching him play outside the structure. Against the Roosters at the start of the year he totally broke out of the structure and changed his kicking game… it goes to show he is evolving his game.<\/p>\n

“At Origin level you have to play outside that structure and be unpredictable.”<\/p>\n

WILL MAROONS REGRET WALSH SNUB?<\/p>\n

The biggest talking point following last week’s team announcement was Reece Walsh being left out of the Queensland team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Billy Slater could not find a spot for the electrifying fullback despite him being the best player in last year’s NRL finals series, and arguably the best player for Australia during the Ashes as well.<\/p>\n

He’s gone with Kalyn Ponga in the No.1 jersey and Ezra Mam on the extended bench, with Walsh nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n

The snub prompted NRL great Luke Keary last week to suggest there must be some kind of personal issue between Slater and Walsh<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fellow former NRL player James Graham believes the Maroons may regret not carrying Walsh on the bench, given his ability to win a game with one freak play.<\/p>\n

“With a six-man bench, and respectfully speaking to Ezra Mam… if you’re looking to break the glass in case of emergency and throw a player on, surely it’s Reece Walsh,” Graham said.<\/p>\n

“There is no better moments player, in terms of creating something from nothing.”<\/p>\n

If Ponga gets injured during the game, it’s expected Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow will be shifted to fullback and Gehemat Shibasaki is on the bench to come into the centres.<\/p>\n

SO HOW WILL THE BENCHES BE USED?<\/p>\n

BLUES: 1. James Tedesco 2. Brian To’o 3. Stephen Crichton 4. Kotoni Staggs 5. Tolu Koula 6. Ethan Strange 7. Nathan Cleary 8. Addin Fonua-Blake 9. Reece Robson 10. Mitchell Barnett 11. Hudson Young 12. Haumole Olakau’atu 13. Isaah Yeo. Interchange: 14. Cameron Murray 15. Victor Radley 16. Jacob Saifiti 17. Blayke Brailey 18. Matt Burton 19. Casey McLean. 20th man: Dylan Lucas<\/p>\n

MAROONS: 1. Kalyn Ponga 2. Selwyn Cobbo 3. Robert Toia 4. Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow 5. Jojo Fifita 6. Cameron Munster 7. Sam Walker 8. Thomas Flegler 9. Harry Grant 10. Tino Fa’asuamaleaui 11. Reuben Cotter 12. Kurt Capewell 13. Max Plath. Interchange: 14. Briton Nikora 15. Lindsay Collins 16. Patrick Carrigan 17. Trent Loiero 18. Ezra Mam 19. Gehamat Shibasaki. 20th man: Kulikefu Finefeuiaki<\/p>\n

This will be the first State of Origin series since the new six-man bench rule was brought into the NRL.<\/p>\n

A team must name six players on the bench, but only four of them can be used during a game.<\/p>\n

It has added an intriguing new element to coaching strategy and both Daley and Slater will have several plans in place in regards to how to use their eight interchanges during the game.<\/p>\n

\"Ezra<\/p>\n

Ezra\u00a0Mam could be the Queensland X-factor.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“It’s an interesting one, because it can change in the first five minutes obviously,” Daley said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“Ideally you probably want to use three interchange players and then you’re holding one back. There are a lot of plans we will have ready, but it’s seeing how the game unfolds before we go into more detail.”<\/p>\n

As mentioned above, Shibasaki is basically on the Maroons bench in case Ponga, or one of the wingers or centres, gets injured.<\/p>\n

Mam can provide some X-factor if needed late in a game and will likely want to be used in a roaming role in the middle of the field, as Ben Hunt has done in recent years for Queensland.<\/p>\n

Collins and Carrigan will be used by Slater through his middle forwards rotation, while Nikora is an edge specialist and Loiero could end up being the odd man out.<\/p>\n

For the Blues, McLean will likely only be called upon if there is an injury in the backs, while Burton can be used at centre or in a playmaking role further infield.<\/p>\n

The interesting call from Daley is carrying just one prop on his bench in Jacob Saifiti. There is plenty of versatility there, with Radley and Murray both capable of playing through the middle or on an edge.<\/p>\n

Brailey is just a straight swap for Robson at hooker and if the latter can play 80 minutes it could be a waste of an interchange to put the Sharks rake on the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teams are named and preparation is completed for Wednesday night’s State of Origin series opener. Queensland returns to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-696034","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\/696034","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=696034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}