2016 State of Origin

It'll be interesting to see what team Walters picks. The composition is pretty much set but we don't know his personal preferences with the 50/50's. I can easily imagine him leaving out Lillyman for someone like McGuire or Napa.

 

Not really no. You could easily make the argument that it would be beneficial in that despite Lillyman's experience and his extremely underrated status, it's quite clear that Napa for example is much better suited to an impact role off the bench. Or that McGuire is just straight up the better player. It's more the composition of the side, and the bench in particular.

Given that Thaiday is most certainly going to start, Gillett and Papalli should, afaic, be fighting for the second rower spot on the interchange bench. And Papalii should get it quite comfortably. Aside from being more threatening in terms of breaking the line, Gillett really comes out second in every other facet. He's much weaker defensively, he has more errors in his game, he can't shift middle third to play prop. And so forth. But Walters studied under Bellamy so we'll probably end up with 18 backrowers.

 

That's a bit of an exaggeration don't you think? Our stocks aren't anywhere near as deep as NSW's but we've got more than 5.

 

I know what Ged's trying to say. Gillett has an edge about him when it comes to being in the right spot, and getting across the line. In that regard he does have a sort of Steve Menzies feel about him as an Origin impact player. He was equal top try scorer in Origin this year; the only forward on the list. And he has made his fair share of breaks and half breaks playing off the bench for us.

 

Well you may not agree but I think Guerra is. I think Papalii is. Cooper, Lowe, Bukuya and Gillett are. Even blokes I don't rate very highly like Thaiday, Taylor and McQueen are at the very least FG standard edge forwards. You could throw Parker in there too as he's shown he can play second row for QLD.

And I really like Grevsmuhl despite his limited experience. I think he's a FG standard second rower in the making.