{"id":764832,"date":"2026-06-28T01:39:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T01:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/764832\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T01:39:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T01:39:33","slug":"state-of-origin-2026-what-time-is-the-nsw-blues-team-for-game-3-named-team-changes-laurie-daley-haumole-olakauatu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/764832\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin 2026: What time is the NSW Blues team for Game 3 named, team changes, Laurie Daley, Haumole Olakau\u2019atu"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NSW Blues have been urged to make at least one change as Laurie Daley prepares to name his team for the State of Origin decider at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Blues are expected to reveal their squad for Game 3 at 7pm AEST on Sunday night after the Wests Tigers play the Newcastle Knights in the final fixture of Round 17.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dylan Lucas, Bradman Best and Apisai Koroisau are among the Blues contenders in that game, while Ethan Strange and Hudson Young will be looking to press their Origin claims in the earlier 2pm clash against the Dragons.<\/p>\n

One player that did their chances of an Origin recall no harm was Haumole Olakau\u2019atu<\/a>, who was at his destructive best on Saturday night as he scored two tries, ran for 165 metres and broke nine tackles in a 30-4 win over Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Olakau\u2019atu was controversially dropped in favour of Lucas ahead of Game 2, but both Cooper Cronk and former Queensland coach Kevin Walters agreed the Manly second rower deserves to feature in the decider.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely. I think he\u2019ll be on the bench,\u201d Cronk said on Fox League after Saturday\u2019s game. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think Hudson Young and Liam Martin will start in the back row. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe damage he did, particularly against Munster\u2019s side of the field, if you want to go after the Queensland captain bring this man on with some tired defenders. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis guy is a beast. He\u2019s physical. He probably doesn\u2019t need to play long minutes that he got caught up in game one but bring him on. He was devastating tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get all the latest NRL news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\n

Moses blasts ‘unfair’ Daley criticism | 03:50<\/p>\n

Walters said Olakau\u2019atu has only benefited from his Origin omission, believing the 27-year-old looks to have \u201csharpened up\u201d some of the aspects of his game that may have seen him left out by Daley for the Melbourne game. <\/p>\n

\u201cTonight he just sent a message out to selectors and Laurie Daley: pick me for game three,\u201d Walters added on Fox League. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou couldn\u2019t leave him out after that performance. Coming off the bench he could do some huge damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking at the NSW line-up for Game 2, Nathan Cleary, Payne Haas, Reece Robson, Mitch Barnett, Young, Isaah Yeo, Cameron Murray, Tolu Koula and Strange appear locked in to feature in some capacity.<\/p>\n

James Tedesco has done more than enough to keep his jersey at fullback, but Dylan Edwards once again proved why he could warrant a call-up with an impressive showing against the Cowboys. <\/p>\n

The rest of the backline is also up in the air outside of Cleary\u2019s spot at halfback, with Tom Trbojevic a contender to come in after returning from injury.<\/p>\n

LIVE BLOG<\/p>\n

Follow along for the latest NSW Blues team news and the official announcement at 7pm.<\/p>\n

Can\u2019t see the blog? Click here!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NSW Blues have been urged to make at least one change as Laurie Daley prepares to name…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-764832","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\/764832","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=764832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}