Maroons forward Jeremiah Nanai said he “wasn’t surprised” to be moved to the bench for Game Two and was happy to take on any role as Queensland aim to wrap up the series.
Arguably Queensland’s most impactful forward in their opening loss at Suncorp Stadium; Maroons coach Billy Slater decided on a major shakeup of his pack for Game Two, including switching the Cowboys tearaway and Broncos leader Pat Carrigan to the bench, moving Trent Loiero to start in his preferred position of lock and bringing in the experience of Kurt Capewell in the backrow.
For the decider, that quartet have been named to reprise their Game Two roles, with warhorse Josh Papalii brought out of retirement to pack some punch up front with Tino Fa’asuamaleaui.
“I'm just very grateful to be in the team, wherever Billy puts me, wherever he needs me to be, if it's on the bench or in the starting, you know, I'll do my job," Nanai said.
“I’ll get the job done for my state and for Queensland, so not surprised at all. I'm blessed to be back into this team, it's always special and I can't wait.
Inside Camp: Josh Papalii
“I played with (Papalii) once, he was there my first year when I first came in.
“I can't wait to have Big Papa back in. It's always good to have him around the team, he's a great guy and it's good to have him back in the team.
“Definitely, he brings that aggression and that experience to the forward pack and will bring a lot of confidence for us to have him there.
“He brings me confidence too to have him and know that he's got our back, I can't wait to have Big Papa there."
Trent Loiero was another looking forward to lining up with Papalii after once again being named to start at lock for Wednesday night.
Although solid in his Origin debut coming from the bench in Game One, some questioned the elevation of Loiero to a starting role in Game Two, but he showed why he is so highly valued by the Storm with his performance that included 41 tackles, 84 run metres.
While Slater has been known to pull a late game-day switch; Loiero said the belief instilled in him Slater just made him feel even more comfortable in his ability to perform as he prepared for his first decider.
“During this series I have learnt lots, I think it's been unreal to sort of be around the calibre of players that are in here, you've got the likes Tino and Patty and Lindsay Collins, the list goes on," Loiero said.
“You can pick their brains and see how they go about things week-to-week and how they prepare for games and even just mentalities around training and everything, so I've learnt heaps and I think just being around those type of players sort of rubs off on you, so I'm just super excited to be here and love being in these camps.
“I feel like I've got confidence in myself because I know what I do week to week, with my preparation and training, but in saying that, having someone like Billy put the faith in you after one game to start you, is pretty special and important and I just wanted to repay him showing his faith in me and I thought we did that as a team in Game Two.
“But that's one game; we need to go out and do it in New South Wales in Sydney and for two halves.
“We'll be right. We know what type of footy we want to play and we just need to get that on for 80 minutes.”
Match: Blues v Maroons
Game 3 -
home Team
Blues
away Team
Maroons
Venue: Accor Stadium, Sydney
Match broadcasters:
- WatchNRL
