'He trained really well': Maguire confirms Blues star is right to go for Origin decider 06:46

Well, all roads lead to Suncorp Wednesday night for the Origin Decider. New South Wales attempting to do what no Blues side has done in Brisbane since 2005. And the Queensland Maroons, well, they're looking to make it a third straight series victory. I thought we'd check in with both camps this afternoon. We'll start off with the Blues. Their coach is Michael McGuire and he's on the line. G'day, Madge. Hi.

Hey, Mark, how are you? Mate, very well. What an opportunity for yourself and this New South Wales team to create your own legacy and for these players to become heroes at Suncorp Stadium where you'll get no favours. Yeah, Mark, we are looking forward to it. Obviously, the boys over the last two, three months have put a lot of work into this time, so we now have our opportunity to be able to create their own and I'd like nothing more than this group of players to be able to put themselves into the history books.

Yeah, Gally trained this morning, mate. He did the whole session, the way they manage players these days, they like Formula 1 cars, but he got out there today and everything's fine. He trained really well, actually, so looking forward to him being ready to go on Wednesday.

Mate, you had a big win in the game too, and it couldn't have been easy for you to drop a player from the team after such a fantastic win in Olukawatu and bring in Mitchell Barnett. I understand Mitchell Barnett's an outstanding player. Is there a reason behind that?

Yeah, I guess you're always looking to improve the team, Daryl. And I felt, you know, to bring Mitch in, he probably covers more of that middle for us. And that saves me having to move Liam Martin into the middle when I bring Big Hamoli on. So I just, and especially the way Barney's been playing, he's been playing some great footy. I just felt that for us as a team to go up there and perform the way we want.

Yeah, that was the way to go. Hey, Matt, it's Cookie. All the best in the decider, mate. He's still available, too. Still available. He's put a lot into this voice, Cookie. He's got me out there. You've had everything leading up to the camps, mate, before Origins. The passion you show has been great. I was wondering, Connor Watson, what sort of your plans in the decider? He's going to let Reece sort of go as long as he can and then bring him in? Or is that sort of a plan before halftime there?

Yeah, depending on how the game goes, Cookie. I've talked about this many times when you've got a player like that on the bench where you look at how the game's going, how Reece is going, how much work he's done. Depending on whether or not the opposition, you're seeing a little bit more fatigue through the middle so you can speed the game up. So I guess it's really off the field over time, depending on how Reece is going as well. But he's done a fabulous job for us over the last couple of games. He's

He's rock solid. Yeah, I think he's shown he's got the fitness to get through the game anyway. So do you reckon there's any opportunity of having both of them on the field at the same time?

Yeah, definitely. We probably, I mean, yes and no, depending on what's the way I sort of brought Barney on. We've obviously got the middles that can rotate there and what Connor does bring to us, mate, he can go anywhere. So if we, you know, in this day and age with concussion, whether or not it's a centre or whoever it might be that may get clipped at some stage, we've got some great cover that he can cover every position along the field. So if we needed to have him in the middle there together, we can definitely do that as well.

Madge, what are you expecting in this game, like differently from the game two, let's talk about, because you're absolutely dominant there, led 34-0 at halftime, but you are playing up at Suncorp. What are you expecting to happen differently in this game from game two?

Yeah, Darrell, well, I have learned, I guess, that no game is the same and you've got to earn the right to be able to create it. And wherever you play, I mean, obviously there's a lot of chatter about playing up there, but you've got the same dimensions and you've got noise and you have that in any stadium that you go into. It's your mindset about what you want to do as a group and that's really what we've focused on. And, you know, you've got to get momentum by what you do and when you do that, you put pressure on the opposition and create the things that we did in...

that first half. Do you think they'll be better? Do you expect Queensland to be better on the field, same thing, on the field than what they were in game two? Well, I guess everyone tells me that things are different up there, but I go back to what we do. No doubt, every game's different and you've got to earn the right, as I said, to be able to create opportunities for yourself. So we've got our game and we need to make sure that we get that on between that 80 minutes.

Couple of light-hearted ones before you go, Madge. This DJ that you brought in to play the crowd noise and everything else, was that more to mimic what's going to happen at Suncorp or to drown out that bloody boombox that Jerome and Brian get around with? Well, I haven't seen the boombox around, actually. Also around a court. But, yeah, we definitely had that just as noise, just a...

know what it feels like. Obviously, when you're playing in the stadium up there, I mean, it's a great stadium to go and play at. Even to coach at, it's a great stadium. So you look forward to going to that stadium and you've just got to have that awareness that you're probably not going to be able to hear each other. And that's the practice that we've done. Can I ask you a question? I'm interested from a coaching perspective. So you're saying you coach differently at different stadiums, are you saying? Or you prefer coaching at some stadiums as opposed to others? Yeah.

I like catching at any stadium. It doesn't matter whether I'm in the backyard, Darrell, if I need to. But when you go up there, mate, you know, it's obviously the way the stadium is built. Everything's tight and close. So it makes it enjoyable. And I'm just thinking, Madge, I mean, New South Wales Blues camps have been interesting over the years. We've had blokes full of horses. Did you ever think there'd be a time where you'd be talking about Jerome Luai getting stuck in a wave pool? Especially at home, Bush. LAUGHTER

But, mate, all of a sudden you're seeing surfboards on the roofs driving around Homebush. But, yeah, I'm glad he made it out safely and you saw his life go before his eyes. But, no, he was very safe. He snuck out there and realised that water has actually got to go somewhere. And there is a subtle little rip that happens in those pools and it took him on a ride. Who was the best surfers out there that day?

Birdo was a pretty decent one. Connor Watson, he's a fair surfer. There were a few really poor surfers, I can tell you that. Cameron Murray, he wouldn't be...

I think he got the boogie board out. I don't think he's game enough to get up. The boogie board. You wouldn't have thought the Penrith boys would have been all that good at it. Yeah, well, as you probably noticed, Jerome was on the boogie board and he still got into trouble. Oh, great stuff. Well, mate, we'll see you at Suncorp on Wednesday night. We're going to check in with the Queenslanders as well and we obviously wish the respective states all the best. It's been a great campaign and we look forward to another instalment in the Ampole State of Origin series Wednesday night.

Thanks, boys. Appreciate it going on. There he is, Michael Maguire, the coach of the New South Wales Origin team.