{"id":397395,"date":"2024-05-27T00:10:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-27T00:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=397395"},"modified":"2024-05-27T02:06:06","modified_gmt":"2024-05-27T02:06:06","slug":"slaters-ominous-clue-about-bizarre-bench-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=397395","title":{"rendered":"Slater's ominous clue about bizarre bench pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland<\/a> coach Billy Slater<\/a> has dropped an ominous hint in explaining why he picked Selwyn Cobbo on the Maroons bench.<\/p>\n

It's a radical selection from Slater, who has both Cobbo – an outside back or fullback – and Harry Grant – a specialist hooker – on his bench for game one.<\/p>\n

It leaves only two forwards in the rotation for the State of Origin opener in Sydney on Wednesday week.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Stars axed as Maguire shakes up Blues team\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'It's a nightmare': Golf star's cause of death revealed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Monster' F1 crash brings Monaco GP to sudden stop<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Slater was quizzed on Cobbo's potential role when speaking to media on Monday, and asked whether there is a pre-planned role for the Broncos star or if he is simply acting as injury cover for the backline.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"Bit of both," Slater said.<\/p>\n

\"Dane<\/p>\n

"Four of the six last Origin games we've had to replace an outside back, so certainly a bit of cover.<\/p>\n

"At the same time Selwyn can play multiple positions… we might even create one for him, who knows.<\/p>\n

"We'll build that plan as the week goes on. We've only seen the surface of what Selwyn can do."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 State of Origin series exclusively live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Asked by one journalist if Cobbo could come on in a roving forward role around the middle of the field, the coach replied "maybe" with a grin on his face.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffThat's a good idea," Slater said to the journalist.<\/p>\n

"Selwyn is a wonderful player. He's a big lad, he's very capable.<\/p>\n

"We will build what's best for the team… but that might be taken out of our hands (with injuries)."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Slater also defended his selection of Cowboys playmaker Tom Dearden ahead of Brisbane whizkid Ezra Mam.<\/p>\n

Dearden will wear the No.6 jumper left vacant by the injury to Cameron Munster.<\/p>\n

"Have you seen Tommy play?" Slater fired back when asked about Dearden.<\/p>\n

"You don't want to watch Tommy too long to understand what he brings to the footy team.<\/p>\n

\"PERTH,<\/p>\n

"The one thing Queensland had when Cameron Munster went down was quality players who could fill in that position. Ezra Mam is part of the 20-man squad.<\/p>\n

"There probably wasn't a wrong decision there, but I feel Tommy Dearden has earned this."\ufeff<\/p>\n

\ufeffJ'Maine Hopgood will make his Origin debut off the bench thanks to some solid form for Parramatta.<\/p>\n

Experienced forwards Jaydn Su'A and Felise Kaufusi are back in the squad, although the latter is in the reserves.\ufeff<\/p>\n

QLD Maroons game one team<\/h3>\n

1.<\/strong> Reece Walsh 2.<\/strong> Xavier Coates 3.<\/strong> Valentine Holmes 4.<\/strong> Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow 5.<\/strong> Murray Taulagi 6.<\/strong> Tom Dearden 7.<\/strong> Daly Cherry-Evans (c) 8.<\/strong> Reuben Cotter 9.<\/strong> Ben Hunt 10.<\/strong> Lindsay Collins 11.<\/strong> Jaydn Su'A 12.<\/strong> Jeremiah Nanai 13.<\/strong> Pat Carrigan BENCH: 14.<\/strong> Harry Grant 15.<\/strong> Moeaki Fotuaika 16.<\/strong> J'Maine Hopgood 17.<\/strong> Selwyn Cobbo<\/p>\n

RESERVES: 18.<\/strong> Felise Kaufusi 19.<\/strong> Brendan Piakura 20.<\/strong> Ezra Mam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queensland coach Billy Slater has dropped an ominous hint in explaining why he picked Selwyn Cobbo on the Maroons bench. It's a radical selection from […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":397397,"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\/397395"}],"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=397395"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":397399,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397395\/revisions\/397399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/397397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=397395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=397395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=397395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}