{"id":503428,"date":"2026-05-25T20:36:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T20:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=503428"},"modified":"2026-05-25T23:26:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T23:26:45","slug":"maroons-star-lifts-lid-on-arrows-impact-in-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=503428","title":{"rendered":"Maroons star lifts lid on Arrow's impact in camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland Maroons<\/a> fullback Kalyn Ponga has shed some light on the impact Jai Arrow<\/a>'s presence has had in the camp after he accepted an invitation to be part of the ground heading into Origin I.<\/p>\n

Arrow retired immediately from the NRL last week after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The forward played 12 matches for the Maroons in an illustrious career and coach Billy Slater was quick to invite him into camp in Sydney this week.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Flanagan lifts lid on Dragons exit, pressure of coaching son<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Neale Daniher dies after lengthy MND battle, aged 65<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>Munster laughs off 'mind games' accusation after sitting out<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Arrow joined some of his former teammates in Sydney for dinner on Monday night with Ponga explaining what went on. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"H\ufeffe's in there now. We went out for dinner, he shared some words and we celebrated his career really as a Maroon," he said on Nine's 100% Footy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"Billy got up and spoke about some of the qualities Jai has and we've all seen through the years. Just to see him in camp with a smile (was nice), he's in good spirits. He's a Queenslander and it's nice to have him around and he's enjoyed it too."<\/p>\n

Ponga will form a new-look spine combination for the Maroons in game one with Sam Walker picked at halfback, joining Cameron Munster and Harry Grant in key positions.<\/p>\n

Walker replaces the injured Tom Dearden and will make his debut while Ponga edged out Reece Walsh for the No.1 jersey.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 State of Origin series live and free exclusively on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\ufeff\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While there's plenty of points in the spine, Ponga believes it's all down to the forwards.<\/p>\n

"Obviously Sammy will make his debut which is special and I'm looking forward to playing out there with him and Munny (Cameron Munster), we know what we're going to get from Munny," he said.<\/p>\n

"But Origin's a game of the forwards, it's our forwards that will lay the platform\ufeff. Attack's obviously important but you can't go out there with that mindset too much. We've got to win the game and got to earn the right."\ufeff<\/p>\n

The Maroons take on the Blues in Sydney on Wednesday night.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queensland Maroons fullback Kalyn Ponga has shed some light on the impact Jai Arrow's presence has had in the camp after he accepted an invitation […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":503430,"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\/503428"}],"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=503428"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":503433,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503428\/revisions\/503433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/503430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=503428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=503428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=503428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}