{"id":386104,"date":"2024-04-18T21:29:21","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T21:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=386104"},"modified":"2024-04-18T23:03:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T23:03:39","slug":"goulds-major-hunt-call-as-maroons-debate-heats-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=386104","title":{"rendered":"Gould's major Hunt call as Maroons debate heats up"},"content":{"rendered":"

P\ufeffhil Gould<\/a> has questioned whether Ben Hunt<\/a> will remain in the Queensland<\/a> lineup for this year's State of Origin series, with coach Billy Slater<\/a> facing a huge selection dilemma.<\/p>\n

With less than two months \ufeffuntil the series kicks off, all the attention has turned towards the fullback debate for the Maroons, with incumbent star Reece Walsh<\/a> and last year's Dally M Medal winner Kalyn Ponga<\/a> both fighting for the No.1 jumper.<\/p>\n

There have been suggestions that both men could fit into Slater's final 17 for the opening game, which would likely see Hunt or Harry Grant miss out.<\/p>\n

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Speaking on Wide World of Sports' Six Tackles With Gus<\/em><\/a>, the former NSW coach questioned whether the veteran Dragons skipper will be retained for his state.<\/p>\n

\"Dragons<\/p>\n

"Harry Grant's nearly at the position where he's an 80-minute player and I think if Ben Hunt is on the bench, he is only covering one position," Gould said.<\/p>\n

"Do they keep persevering with Ben Hunt at the representative level? Harry Grant has now had a few years there and obviously Ben Hunt's experience has been wonderful for them – but they don't play him in a halves role, they only play him in a hooker role.<\/p>\n

"Ben Hunt has been a great servant of the game and they probably will pick him, but that means Reece Walsh or Kalyn Ponga or someone is gonna miss out."<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Hunt has represented\ufeff the Maroons on 17 occasions across a variety of positions, but at 34 years of age it's unlikely he has many Origin games left in him.<\/p>\n

Ponga, Walsh and Grant on the other\ufeff hand all have youth on their side, which could put Queensland's famous pick and stick mentality under the microscope.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After taking out the NRL's top gong last year, Gould believes the Knights fullback should be back in the representative arena in 2024.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\ufeff"In the form that he's in, you couldn't ever imagine picking 17 players for Queensland and Kalyn Ponga not being there somewhere," he said.<\/p>\n

"The quality of your team is often shown by the quality of the player who misses out."<\/p>\n

The series will kick off on Wednesday, June 5 at Accor Stadium in Sydney.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

P\ufeffhil Gould has questioned whether Ben Hunt will remain in the Queensland lineup for this year's State of Origin series, with coach Billy Slater facing […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":381796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=386104"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":386108,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386104\/revisions\/386108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/381796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=386104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=386104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=386104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}