Star returns to Origin arena after 18 months out<\/a><\/p>\nNathan Cross has been appointed Harvey Norman Maroons head coach. Picture: QRL MediaSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
Queensland hosted the six-week training block at the Australian Catholic University in Brisbane, which has opened up its full suite of training and recovery facilities. Cross has also employed the services of esteemed sports psychologist Dr Jo Lukins to extract the best from his squad and ideate the legendary Queenslander spirit.<\/p>\n
What originally began with a squad of 34 Maroons players has been cut to 23 at the time of writing, with Cross to make a final call on his 20-woman outfit following an opposed session against the Redcliffe women\u2019s Queensland Cup side on Friday.<\/p>\n
With most NRLW players still working regular jobs, the QRL and Rugby League Players Association have assisted in ensuring Queensland players are fairly compensated when attending the camps. NRLW clubs have also helped manage individual workloads between club sessions and weekend Origin sessions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the best way of giving ourselves some form of preparation similar to NSW, even with the geographical challenges,\u201d Cross said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got players from Sydney, Canberra, Mackay, Townsville, Cairns \u2013 so that\u2019s what I came up with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Queensland and NSW are evenly poised with four series wins apiece since Womens State of Origin took over from the former Interstate Challenge in 2018.<\/p>\n
NSW are aiming to secure consecutive Origin series wins in 2026, having wrapped up last year\u2019s title in the opening two matches.<\/p>\n
They will take on a QLD side that won\u2019t include longstanding captain Ali Brigginshaw, following her Origin retirement in 2025. Star playmaker Tarryn Aiken will also sit out the series after rupturing her ACL a week before last year\u2019s NRLW finals series.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a new era, and as the coach I don\u2019t want to overstate that,\u201d Cross said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAli is a massive omission, given what she has done in the game, as is Tarryn. There will be a new coach, there will be a new captain, and there will be girls who really push for Origin debuts off the back of good NRLW season last year, and a really impressive pre-series this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Queensland undergoes major changes, NSW coach John Strange has settled combinations to draw on after winning last year\u2019s series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newly installed Queensland women\u2019s coach Nathan Cross has unlocked a selection process he believes will give the Maroons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-405156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405156","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=405156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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