{"id":774068,"date":"2026-07-02T10:31:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T10:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/774068\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T10:31:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T10:31:18","slug":"state-of-origin-selection-why-mitchell-moses-has-been-retained-at-five-eighth-for-the-series-decider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/774068\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin selection: Why Mitchell Moses has been retained at five-eighth for the series decider"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Of the catalogue of selection debates to emerge during this year\u2019s State of Origin series, who should wear the NSW No.6 jersey has been as big a discussion point as any.<\/p>\n

So it is the case again approaching the decider with Mitchell Moses retained at five-eighth despite being out of form, having had his interstate campaign disrupted by injury and with Canberra\u2019s Ethan Strange having made a case for inclusion with a blinder on debut in Sydney in May.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"MitchellMitchell Moses will make his eighth appearance for the Blues next week.Getty Images<\/p>\n

A classic of the \u201cpicked on faith\u201d genre, the 31-year-old will run out alongside Nathan Cleary at Suncorp Stadium in a halves combination with enormous scrutiny on it following an underwhelming display in the second game at the MCG.<\/p>\n

The NSW spine were outplayed by their Queensland counterparts in a 44-24 defeat that left the series at 1-1<\/a>. But while coach Laurie Daley made five changes to his team for Brisbane, those key positions remained untouched.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot that exact moment, but to get up there and clinch the series \u2026 it was a great feeling then and hopefully we can do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moses was the NSW halfback for games two and three as the Blues stormed back to claim the series under Michael Maguire in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"MitchellMitchell Moses and the Blues celebrate that series-clinching try at Suncorp in 2024.NRL Photos<\/p>\n

It was only the third time NSW have won a series decider in Brisbane in the history of State of Origin.<\/p>\n

Daley, who was captain on the first occasion in 1994, is placing his trust in Moses to help deliver a fourth such triumph next week, saying he brought confidence to the team as well as a booming kicking game and could take the pressure off talisman Cleary.<\/p>\n

Moses said he had not watched a replay of Origin II before re-entering the NSW camp but believes he and Cleary can bring out the best in each other despite both being so-called dominant halfbacks at club level.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll go out there and we\u2019ll create a game plan to beat Queensland … it doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019ve got [number] seven, six, one, 21 on your back \u2013 you work it out, and you get the win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Stephen<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll sit down and we\u2019ll work that out. We\u2019ll work out how we can link up and make that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moses is unconcerned about the criticism being levelled at Daley and the Blues, hoping to have the last laugh north of the border again.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s picked the team and we\u2019re in here now,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the team that he thinks can go up there and do a job.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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\"ChrisChris Barrett<\/a> is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former South-East Asia correspondent for the Herald and The Age.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-774068","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\/774068","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=774068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}