Origin Game One Preview

By Stephen Gallagher

We’ve reached that time of the season where most NRL games are affected by players missing due to Origin, but Origin is so good people kinda forget about NRL, and it’s fine and no one says a thing.

ANYWAY

Origin is awesome. It’s a great spectacle. I’m not even Australian.

New South Wales heads north over the border to take on Queensland in Game One of the 2025 State Of Origin Series.

Winners of the unwinnable series last year, going down 1-0 at home, levelling up in Melbourne, to beat Queensland at home in Game 3 – 202 was certainly a series to remember for the Blues.

And now the Queenslanders have to defend their home turf in game one. Staring down the barrel of back-to-back losses at Suncorp, which almost feels unheard of.

New South Wales, of course, favourite to win the series – but they will be very hard pressed to get a result tonight.

Queensland, despite their injury concerns, welcome back Cameron Munster and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui after missing last year’s series. Their two most influential players, other than Harry Grant.

And then you look at the Blues, made up of 9 players from the Panthers and Roosters – two teams that have been out of form the majority of the year. Is this the platform for these players to find their feet and get it up?

The first time we will see Nathan Cleary and Mitchell Moses together as a halves pairing. Lots of comments around if this will work or not. I know they’re not Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk – but these two are not them. They will do their best for what the team and the state need, and they’ve season vets who know how to get this job done and share the role.

If we’re looking at spines – I think Queensland’s is better. Mainly it’s because their hooker is the best hooker in the world. You can’t deny what Harry Grant brings to any side, and just how dangerous he is.

Ponga, while out of form and tryless this season, will find great joy playing with other like-minded stars. DCE & Munster together know what it takes to win.

But it’s the NSW backs that move the needle for me. To’o, Lomax, Crichton, Mitchell. Players who are incredibly dominant and are merchants for eating metres.

Hard to split the forwards. Tino and Haas cancel each other out. Barnett beats out Fotuaika. Cotter and Nanai offer more on attack, but Crichton and Martin are stronger defensively. Carrigan performs better at Origin than Yeo.
Still though. All those names. It’s going to be a helluva battle up front.

Dearden, Collins, Fermor, Loiero – two on debut put the Blues bench ahead of them with Watson, Leniu, Young and King bringing more punch.

Honestly, this game is going to be very, very tight.

While the Queenslanders are underdogs, they should win this in my eyes.

We haven’t really seen much narritive around villains, but I think Leniu’s comments to Thurston will be a secret ammunition for the Maroons to fire up.

First try scorer is Jeremiah Nanai – Maroons win 26-24.

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