{"id":722096,"date":"2026-06-08T01:32:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T01:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/722096\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T01:32:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T01:32:21","slug":"state-of-origin-2026-qld-maroons-team-list-game-2-reece-walsh-recalled-billy-slater-explains-selection-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/722096\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin 2026 QLD Maroons Team List Game 2: Reece Walsh recalled, Billy Slater explains selection decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland<\/a> coach Billy Slater<\/a> was tight-lipped as he was peppered with questions about his recall of Reece Walsh<\/a> for State of Origin<\/a> II, saying \u201cwe know what he\u2019s capable of\u201d and little else.<\/p>\n

Slater has named Walsh on his six-man bench for the June 17 clash at the MCG, after sensationally deciding not to pick him for the series opener won by NSW 22-20<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Broncos superstar Reece Walsh.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Slater axed Broncos playmaker Ezra Mam<\/a> to make room for Walsh.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just think it\u2019s the best thing for the footy team,\u201d Slater said on Monday after finalising his 20-man squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know what Reece is capable of doing, and now we\u2019ve got 10 days to go after our best footy and help our players be at their best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsh has been recalled despite the Broncos\u2019 five-game losing streak and the superstar fullback\u2019s patchy form.<\/p>\n

The 2025 Clive Churchill Medallist was beaten in defence a couple of times as Brisbane lost 28-23 to Gold Coast on Saturday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked what parts of Walsh\u2019s game had impressed him in recent weeks, Slater put up his guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll keep all that stuff in house,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a great relationship with Reece. That goes back to when he debuted for the Warriors, and he\u2019s built a really good game, and if needed, I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll go out there and perform that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what he\u2019s capable of, and it\u2019s about us playing our best football as a footy team. We\u2019re more than one person and that\u2019s been the strength of this footy team for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slater again brought attention back to the team when asked how far off his best he thought Walsh was.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said, we\u2019re more than one person, one player,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strength of the team is the team, and that\u2019s what we\u2019ll be going after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what kind of role he envisioned Walsh playing in game two, Slater said: \u201cYeah, we\u2019ll work that out as the week goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Reece<\/p>\n

Reece Walsh in action for Queensland.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Walsh appeared to be playing injured against the Titans on Saturday night but Brisbane coach Michael Maguire denied that was the case<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To account for the loss of Broncos workhorse Patrick Carrigan to an ankle injury, Slater promoted Dolphins second-rower Kulikefu Finefeuiaki from 20th man to the bench and brought in Cowboys back-rower Heilum Luki to be 20th man.<\/p>\n

To cover the loss of Broncos centre Gehamat Shibasaki to a knee injury, he recalled Cowboys outside back Murray Taulagi.<\/p>\n

Slater also moved Reuben Cotter from the second row to lock, promoted Briton Nikora from the bench to the second row, and moved Max Plath from lock to the bench.<\/p>\n

Queensland\u2019s team for game two<\/p>\n

1. Kalyn Ponga 2. Selwyn Cobbo 3. Robert Toia 4. Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow 5. Jojo Fifita 6. Cameron Munster (c) 7. Sam Walker 8. Thomas Flegler 9. Harry Grant 10. Tino Fa\u2019asuamaleaui 11. Briton Nikora 12. Kurt Capewell 13. Reuben Cotter 14. Max Plath 15. Lindsay Collins 16. Kulikefu Finefeuiaki 17. Trent Loiero 18. Reece Walsh 19. Murray Taulagi 20. Heilum Luki<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queensland coach Billy Slater was tight-lipped as he was peppered with questions about his recall of Reece Walsh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-722096","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\/722096","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=722096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}