Billy Slater cops heat over odd Hammer move for Queensland

A club coach has questioned a move from Billy Slater that leaves one of his major Queensland strike weapons in an unfamiliar position.

Billy Slater, who is in a battle to retain his place in charge of Queensland, has had one of his key moves questioned by an NRL coach.

After a comprehensive 18-6 NSW victory in Game 1 in Brisbane, the Maroons need a win in Perth on Wednesday to keep the State of Origin series alive.

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Coming off last year’s 2-1 defeat, when Slater’s Queensland outfit lost the deciding game at Suncorp Stadium, the 41-year-old would be unlikely to survive a second successive failure against their arch enemy.

The former fullback has reacted by making a number of changes to his side for Game 2, including dumping captain Daly Cherry-Evans, recalling Kurt Capewell and naming Patrick Carrigan and Jeremiah Nanai on the bench.

Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow has starred in the centres for Queensland. Picture NRL photos

But his positional switch for tryscoring beast Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow has been questioned by his coach at the Dolphins, Kristian Woolf.

Tabuai-Fidow plays fullback for the NRL club, but has enjoyed great success in the centres for the Maroons, scoring nine tries across his eight appearances, including a hat-trick in last year’s opening 38-10 win.

So Slater’s decision to move the ‘Hammer’ to the wing, an apparent bid to combat NSW gun Zac Lomax, caught Woolf by surprise.

“It’s certainly not a position we’ll look at playing him here,” Woolf told reporters.

“I think he’s a fullback and that’s his best position, I think he’s done a great job in the rep arena as a centre.

Billy Slater (right) with his new Maroons skipper, Cameron Munster. Picture Lachie Millard

Dolphins coach Kristian Woolf was surprised by the move. Picture: NRL Images

“Look I’m not in those camps so I’m not going to talk about selections and things like that. “But he’s a talented footy player, we all know that, and playing for Queensland means a lot so I’m sure he’ll make that sacrifice.”

Meanwhile, Cherry-Evans broke his silence on his Queensland axing after the Sea Eagles lost to the Titans on Friday night.

Cherry-Evans put in a poor display in Manly’s horror 28-8 defeat, capping a disappointing week for the Sea Eagles skipper after being dumped by Slater.

“The start of the week was tough, Sunday got the news, Monday had to go to training and face the boys,” Cherry-Evans said after the game.

“After that it honestly started to feel normal. This is not the first time that I’ve been dropped from the Queensland side.

“So I guess I’ve had experience to take it on board and like I said pre-game, you can’t just worry about the things you can’t control and the initial news was tough but yeah I moved on and thought we were going to come here tonight and play some really good footy.

“Based on our preparation, it looked like all the signs were there and unfortunately the most important part of the week is showing up on game day and we didn’t do that.”

Cherry-Evans was pressed on whether he saw his Origin axing coming but dodged the question.

“No, I just got the call on Sunday and then just, yeah, moved on from there,” Cherry-Evans said.

“I think I got the call on Sunday which was tough and processed it pretty quickly during the week and moved on and yeah as I said the focus has been on Manly all this week so it’s again disappointing to lose back-to-back games.”

– With Fox Sports