Maroons make massive Cherry-Evans call as NSW pick and stick for Perth match

Laurie Daley has just one forced change in a winning NSW Origin set-up as Queensland drop Daly Cherry-Evans as skipper and halfback in one of the biggest calls in State of Origin history.

Daley will still watch Monday’s Canterbury-Parramatta derby with butterflies in the belly and his team list in pencil as Stephen Crichton, Max King, Mitchell Moses and Zac Lomax play one last 80 minutes before the Blues Origin II squad is named.

End of an era? Daly Cherry-Evans is facing the Origin axe.Credit: Getty Images

But as it stands, Melbourne’s Stefano Utoikamanu is set to replace injured front-rower Mitch Barnett up-front. The Storm prop has Blues advisor Craig Bellamy’s backing, and the inside running given his increased involvement in camp leading into game one when Payne Haas was in doubt.

South Sydney’s Keaon Koloamatangi and Wests Tigers’ Terrell May are Daley’s other primary options.

Maroons coach Billy Slater, meanwhile, has called time on Daly Cherry-Evans’ remarkable 26 Origin career with the series on the line - not just the biggest call of the coach’s career, but one that compares to few others in the modern game.

Cowboys star Tom Dearden was announced to wear the Queensland No.7 jumper Cherry-Evans has worn in every game since his Origin return in 2018. Several options - Harry Grant, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and Pat Carrigan among them - remain live for the Queensland captaincy.

Warriors veteran Kurt Capewell was also told to stay in Sydney by Queensland officials on Sunday as his teammates flew home after thrashing Cronulla. The 31-year-old played the last of his 12 Origins in the 2024 decider and shapes as a back-row option with Reuben Cotter set to move to Slater’s bench.

Queensland confirmed their Origin II squad on Monday morning, with a sternum issue for Fa’asuamaleaui already a cause for concern.

NSW will hold fire until after full-time in the Bulldogs-Eels clash, while also awaiting full medical briefings on the slew of stars who turned out in Canberra’s win over South Sydney and Penrith’s 18-14 defeat of Wests Tigers.

Raiders back-rower Hudson Young struggled late in Canberra with cramp and on report for a high shot, but his judiciary record means he will only have to pay a fine for any grade 1 charge.

Daley coached the last NSW squad to go through an entire series with an unchanged 17 in 2017, and played at centre in 1996 - when the Blues named the same side three games running in a 3-0 clean sweep.

Rarely in the modern game does an Origin side go unchanged from game to game, and Daley’s first state coaching tenure did see loyalty to players who ultimately couldn’t trump an elite Queensland side count against him.

Between 2013 and 2017, though, NSW never had the play-making depth to leave a proven winner like Jarome Luai out. Or Tom Trbojevic, Ryan Papenhuyzen. Olakau’atu, Koloamatangi and May.

For Queensland to be dropping Cherry-Evans, meanwhile, makes him the first skipper to be axed mid-series since Trevor Gillmeister went the same way after game one of that 1996 campaign.

The decision has been compared to Wayne Bennett’s demotion of Wally Lewis at the Broncos in the early 90s.

NSW have, of course, left out their two most recent incumbent captains - James Tedesco for Jake Trbojevic in 2024, while Trbojevic was facing a similar demotion until a head knock ruled him out of this year’s series opener.

For the Maroons to be making a call on Cherry-Evans mid-series reflects the sheer enormity of the decision, though, and rare stability in comparison south of the border.

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