State of Origin Game 3 teams: NSW Blues, Queensland Maroons late mail

Blues coach Brad Fittler has thrown a late curveball at the Maroons after both teams trimmed their squads for the Origin decider at Suncorp Stadium.

Jake Trbojevic, Jacob Saifiti and Junior Paulo will share the workload up front for the Blues. Picture: Grant Trouville/NSWRL

NSW coach Brad Fittler will keep Queensland guessing until the final hour after surprisingly naming debutant Jacob Saifiti to start in Wednesday night’s decider.

Both Fittler and Queensland coach Billy Slater trimmed their 22-man squad to 19 on Tuesday night.

Saifiti is expected to play his first Origin match from the bench.

However, Fittler has thrown the Maroons a curveball by naming the Knights prop to start up front with Jake Trbojevic.

Junior Paulo, who has already declared publicly he will start the match, has been named on the interchange bench.

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Jake Trbojevic, Jacob Saifiti and Junior Paulo will share the workload up front for the Blues. Picture: Grant Trouville/NSWRL

Fittler is allowed to swap Saifiti and Paulo an hour before kick-off on Wednesday night.

Jack Wighton remains the Blues 18th man.

“As a middle you pride yourself on getting the team off to a good start and that’s what I will do,” Paulo said earlier this week. “I can’t wait to get out there, I know it will be hostile, but this is why we play the game.”

As for Slater, he has predictably selected rookie half Tom Dearden to start at five-eighth in the absence of Cameron Munster (Covid).

Corey Oates has been named on the wing to replace Murray Taulagi (Covid).