Follow Daily Mail Australia’s live blog for all the updates and scores from the second game of this year’s State of Origin series.
Punter puts down a crazy bet on the Maroons
One footy fan has bet a staggering $95,000 bet on Queensland to win tonight – and will pocket $180,500 if they’re right, according to the TAB.
Other punters have gone the other way with slightly less crazy wagers, including $25,000 on the Blues to get up, and a $24,000 multi-leg bet on Madge’s men.
Queensland great Cooper Cronk reveals his huge worries over Maroons’ chances
The former Cane Toads half hasn’t been this downcast about Queensland’s chances of a victory since Billy Slater took over as coach for the 2022 series – and it all comes down to one word.
‘Desperation forces you to the contest earlier than your opposition,’ he said this week.
How the weather looks in Melbourne
It’s partly cloudy at the moment with a 30 per cent chance of rain, according to the Bureau of Meteorology – and if there is any sort of downfall, it’s most likely to come in the east of the city later on tonight.
A worrying development for NSW fans
Maroons assistant coach Josh Hannay on the 38-10 hammering his team dished out in game one: ‘There are certainly a lot of areas we felt we let ourselves down in and can be better at.’
Sounds like overkill considering how they put the Blues away in Sydney, but he’s right: despite being a man down, there was a decent stretch at the start of the second half in which the Blues looked easily the better team, doing a great job of putting pressure on the Cane Toads after making adjustments at halftime.
A worrying development for Daly Cherry-Evans
He was accused of a cheap shot on Angus Crichton in game one by none other than footy Immortal Andrew Johns – and now the Roosters back rower has spoken out about how the incident will him at the MCG tonight. Not good reading for the Maroons skipper…
How the teams will look barring any late changes
Slater and Maguire didn’t make any last-minute alterations for game one – and if they keep that up, here’s how the teams will look come game time
1. Reece Walsh 2. Xavier Coates 3. Valentine Holmes 4. Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow 5. Murray Taulagi 6. Tom Dearden 7. Daly Cherry-Evans 8. Reuben Cotter 9. Ben Hunt 10. Lindsay Collins 11. Jaydn Su’a 12. Jeremiah Nanai 13. Patrick Carrigan 14. Harry Grant 15. Moeaki Fotuaika 16. Felise Kaufusi 17. Kurt Capewell 18. Dane Gagai 20. Trent Loiero
Your bonus Origin bingo card
If you feel the need to add a bit of extra interest to tonight’s game by playing a game of your own with some mates, give this a go…
Nate Myles jokes about THAT outburst after Sua’ali’i smashed Reece Walsh
The Maroons great turned Queensland assistant was seen shouting ‘Hope you enjoyed your f**king debut’ at the Rooster after he was sent off in game one.
Now he has hit back in hilarious style, saying, ‘It’s a bit of a funny one, I’m a little bit disappointed that people would think that I swear at an upstanding citizen of the game.
‘I just wanted to be honest with him and just let him quietly know how his performance was.’
And if you believe that, we’d like to sell you the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Billy Slater vs Michael Maguire rivalry goes up a notch
They were mates who worked together at the Melbourne Storm when Billy was playing and Madge was coaching, but that’s gone out the window courtesy of the NSW boss’s ‘glass houses’ comment – and today it emerged a simple act by Slater has got the Blues offside once again.
G’day and welcome
Thanks for joining us for our coverage of all the action as the Blues face a must-win game to stop the Maroons winning a third straight series for the first time since 2017.
From team news to the latest scores, controversies and social media reaction, we’ll have you covered as a new-look NSW team tries to recover from the 38-10 hammering they copped in Sydney.
