{"id":466715,"date":"2026-06-08T11:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T11:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/466715\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T11:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T11:11:12","slug":"state-of-origin-ii-reece-walsh-recalled-as-queensland-maroons-team-named","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/466715\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin II: Reece Walsh recalled as Queensland Maroons team named"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jon Healy, ABC<\/p>\n

\"SYDNEY,<\/p>\n

\nReece Walsh of the Maroons and head coach Billy Slater.
\nPhoto: Cameron Spencer\n<\/p>\n

State of Origin II: NSW Blues v Queensland Maroons<\/p>\n

Kick-off: 10.10pm, Wednesday June 17<\/p>\n

Live blog updates on RNZ Sport<\/p>\n

Queensland coach Billy Slater has joked he might need to table a peace summit between Maroons captain Cameron Munster and fullback Kalyn Ponga when they come together in camp for State of Origin II<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Munster hit Ponga after a first-half error, sparking a melee between Storm and Knights players on Friday, but Slater said they would be “all good” in camp.<\/p>\n

“They’re both competitive,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I know Cameron Munster really well, I’m sure they would’ve had a laugh about it afterwards.<\/p>\n

“It’s a game of footy; they’re all out there to compete and do their best. Might have to put ’em together the first couple of days.”<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

\nCameron Munster shoves Kalyn Ponga during Melbourne’s 32-30 win. (Supplied: Kayo Sports)
\nPhoto: Supply \/ Kayo Sports\n<\/p>\n

Qld team for Origin II<\/p>\n

Kalyn Ponga<\/p>\n

Selwyn Cobbo<\/p>\n

Robert Toia<\/p>\n

Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow<\/p>\n

Jojo Fifita<\/p>\n

Cameron Munster (c)<\/p>\n

Sam Walker<\/p>\n

Thomas Flegler<\/p>\n

Harry Grant<\/p>\n

Tino Fa’asuamaleaui<\/p>\n

Briton Nikora<\/a><\/p>\n

Kurt Capewell<\/p>\n

Reuben Cotter<\/p>\n

Max Plath<\/p>\n

Lindsay Collins<\/p>\n

Kulikefu Finefeuiaki *<\/p>\n

Trent Loiero<\/p>\n

Reece Walsh *<\/p>\n

Murray Taulagi *<\/p>\n

Heilum Luki *<\/p>\n

* Did not play Game I<\/p>\n

Slater made three changes to his team for the must-win Origin II at the MCG, with Broncos superstar Reece Walsh named on the bench after not playing since the 2024 series loss.<\/p>\n

Walsh was overlooked completely for the series opener<\/a> in Sydney and his recall comes despite indifferent form during Brisbane’s miserable five-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

“We think it’s the best thing for the footy team [to have him] on the bench there,” Slater said.<\/p>\n

“We all know what Reece is capable of.<\/p>\n

“He’s built a really good game and if needed I’m sure he’ll go out there and perform that.”<\/p>\n

Most of the questions at Slater’s press conference surrounded Walsh, with the coach refusing to elaborate on what precipitated the return to the side, saying he would keep it “in-house”.<\/p>\n

“It’s about us playing our best football as a footy team,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’re more than one person and that’s been the strength of this team for a long time.<\/p>\n

“We’re more than one person, one player. The strength of the team is the team and that’s what we’ll be going after.”<\/p>\n

– ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jon Healy, ABC Reece Walsh of the Maroons and head coach Billy Slater. Photo: Cameron Spencer State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,213],"class_list":["post-466715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466715","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=466715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}