{"id":289623,"date":"2026-02-18T08:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T08:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/289623\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T08:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T08:03:08","slug":"hughes-makes-call-on-origin-future-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/289623\/","title":{"rendered":"Hughes makes call on Origin future – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne Storm<\/a> halfback Jahrome Hughes<\/a> has made a call on whether he will be eligible to play for the Queensland Maroons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I’m not going to play Origin. It doesn’t matter if I’m eligible or not,” Hughes confirmed via his OneSixSeven Podcast with teammate Cameron Munster<\/a> and former teammate Ryan Papenhuyzen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I feel like Origin is such a good game or spectacle because they’re so proud.<\/p>\n

“Like you look at Mun (Cameron Munster<\/a>), you know he’s a proud Queenslander, like he would die for that jersey, whereas if I put a Queensland jersey on, I just wouldn’t have that same passion as if I put on a Kiwis Maori jersey, even a Storm jersey, you know I have real passion for those teams.”<\/p>\n

Speculation had been mounting whether Hughes passed the new eligibility rules<\/a>, and if he would make himself available for selection for the Queensland Maroons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All has been put to bed, with Hughes shutting down the rumours with his honest assessment that he won’t feel the same passion as his competing halves born in the Sunshine State.<\/p>\n

Hughes will continue to represent the New Zealand<\/a> Kiwis in preparation for the Rugby League<\/a> World Cup at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

It is exciting times for the Kiwis with the eligibility rules affecting the international game as well.<\/p>\n

As it stands, Newcastle Knights<\/a> superstar Kalyn Ponga<\/a> can now hold his Queensland Maroons<\/a> eligibility and also represent the Kiwis on the global scale.<\/p>\n

It will see the Kiwis strengthen their star-studded line-up, and it has been a change Ponga has been publicly vocal about in the past; now he has the chance to act on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Get set for the footy with the FREE Zero Tackle 2026 NRL Season Guide!<\/a> Packed with 130+ pages of player profiles, team previews, insights and analysis, the 2026 NRL Season Guide<\/a> is built for fans who want the full picture. Download your free Season Guide HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne Storm halfback Jahrome Hughes has made a call on whether he will be eligible to play for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-289623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}