{"id":83071,"date":"2021-06-10T06:13:19","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T06:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=83071"},"modified":"2021-06-10T06:56:31","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T06:56:31","slug":"smith-jumps-on-maroons-selection-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=83071","title":{"rendered":"Smith jumps on Maroons' selection problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Queensland<\/a> captain Cameron Smith<\/a> has called for selectors to "pick players that are fit" as the Maroons look to keep the State of Origin<\/a> series alive in Game Two, following last night's 50-6 thumping in Townsville<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Melbourne hooker Harry Grant was backed for the No.9 jumper over Parramatta rake Reed Mahoney despite having not played a game since Round Nine due to a hamstring injury. While Mahoney was originally in the Maroons squad, he was released for the Eels' clash with the Knights four days ago and suffered a shoulder injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"State<\/p>\n

Storm five-eighth Cameron Munster<\/a> was also selected despite being under an injury cloud, having not played since Round Nine due to a foot injury, while Rabbitohs centre Dane Gagai<\/a> battled tonsillitis in Maroons camp and was not able to take part in several training sessions.<\/p>\n

Smith says the Maroons can't afford to rely on crook troops as they strive to recover from the biggest Blues win in Origin history.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"There's going to be some big calls made to get the correct line-up to match the Blues in Game Two," Smith said on SEN today.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

"I think what needs to happen, and I'm very hopeful of this, is that for Game Two we need to pick players that are fit, that aren't carrying injuries into the match and they need to have a solid preparation.<\/p>\n

"For Game One – and this is no excuse at all – they had players that couldn't take the field for training sessions early in the camp. They missed two or three training sessions early and could only take part in those team sessions late in the camp.<\/p>\n

"They just can't afford that for Game Two. They need to have 17 fit players to have a really solid preparation leading into that game."<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

Smith said it would have been a "better ploy" to pick Mahoney at hooker and start Grant on the bench.<\/p>\n

"That's just human, isn't it? He hadn't played for five weeks, and same with Cameron Munster," Smith said.<\/p>\n

"You could tell they were short of a run.<\/p>\n

"They're asked to come up and play the highest intensity of any football that's going to be played this year."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Grant was exceptional off the bench in the Maroons' series-deciding victory over the Blues at Suncorp Stadium last November, scoring a try and regularly exploiting NSW's defence.<\/p>\n

Affecting Queensland at the selection table were the injury to gun Newcastle fullback Kalyn Ponga and suspension of inspirational Canberra prop Josh Papalii.<\/p>\n

The Blues were also unable to pick their optimal starting 17, following the suspensions of Angus Crichton and Victor Radley<\/a> and injury to Tyson Frizell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Queensland captain Cameron Smith has called for selectors to "pick players that are fit" as the Maroons look to keep the State of Origin […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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\/83071"}],"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=83071"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83073,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83071\/revisions\/83073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}