Kevin Walters keeps Maroons door open for veteran Matt Scott

Despite his vast experience, there was no place for Matt Scott on Kevin Walters’ list of possible Queensland captains — but the challenge is there for the Cowboys veteran to reclaim his Maroons jersey.

Scott’s experience would be invaluable for the Maroons. Image: Evan Morgan

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Kevin Walters has laid the challenge out to Matt Scott to play his way back into the Queensland State of Origin team after a two-year absence.

But just as he did last week when naming three candidates for the vacant captaincy, Walters did not include Scott, a 2015 premiership co-skipper, on the list of possible captains.

Walters’s encouragement of the selection chances of Scott, 33, also speaks to the need for experience in his side.

Scott, who has played 22 Origin matches, and Matt Gillett (18) would both be welcome additions to a Maroons camp which has been stripped of retirements to five champions now with Greg Inglis’s retirement last week.

Scott’s experience would be invaluable for the Maroons. Image: Peter Wallis

“He missed last year’s series through his knee injury (and) this year with the cowboys they struggled a little early, but put some good form on the board more recently,’’ Walters said on Fox Sports.

“Matt has indicated he wants to play Origin again which is great news for us.

“We know, and Matty knows, that if he playing the football, he is quite capable of playing he could be in the Maroons jersey. He knows if he can play well, the rest will look after itself.’’

Queensland’s incumbent starting props from the Game Three win are Jai Arrow and Josh Papalii, both of whom are in good form in 2019.

Jarrod Wallace and Tim Glasby were the middle forwards off the bench.

The challenge now is to find his best form for the Cowboys. Image: Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images

Bronco Joe Ofahengaue and Melbourne’s Christian Welch are also among the “mids’’ the Queensland selectors will also continue to monitor until the team is named after round 11.

Scott played at least two games in six series which Queensland won from 2010-16 and he has not played in the past two series.

Walters again named Daly Cherry-Evans, Michael Morgan and Jake Friend as captaincy contenders.

“DCE has obviously been captain of Manly for some years. Michael Morgan is (Cowboys) captain and we feel he has a long career ahead of him,’’ he said.

“Jake Friend is co-captain of his club side and has great experience in leadership. We are looking forward to the next four or five weeks, seeing how our senior players are going.’’

DCE and Morgan are both possible captains. Image: Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images

Scott played 50 minutes in North Queensland’s win over the Warriors last Saturday and 45 in the previous week’s loss to Melbourne.

The Cowboys named Jason Taumalolo, absent for four weeks as he recovered from a knee injury, and centre Tom Opacic as reserves in their 21-man squad outside an unchanged 17-player team.

Cowboys coach Paul Green said he was pleased to see Jake Granville’s five runs from dummy-half against the Warriors, in which he gained 76m, after he did not run with the ball at all against the Storm.

“When he’s running we are playing a better brand of footy,’’ he said.

“It was good to see him get that spark back. We need it.

“The effort from the team has been there for a few weeks, but we didn’t get the reward. It’s important we improve and not take our foot off the gas.’’

Originally published as Kevin Walters keeps Maroons door open for veteran Matt Scott