State Of Origin

Trbojevic scored his second Origin hat-trick and set up another as he popped up all over the field, helping NSW blow the Maroons off the park in the series opener.

Fellow centre Latrell Mitchell was also superb with his own double in his Origin return, while debutant winger Brian To'o also bagged two tries.

The Blues backs were too strong and too fast for Queensland, who weren't able to take advantage of a one-sided home crowd of 27,533 in Townsville's maiden Origin.

Green on Monday selected Cameron Munster, Kalyn Ponga and Harry Grant in his 20-man squad despite the trio having not played any NRL games since round nine.

Grant has been named to start at hooker while Mahoney and fellow potential debutant Kyle Feldt have been listed on the extended bench in the team submitted to the NRL by midday on Monday under official guidelines.

Munster has battled a Lisfranc foot injury, Grant needs to overcome a hamstring strain and Ponga has struggled with a groin complaint and all three remain in doubt for the series opener next week.

Mt Druitt-bred livewires Jarome Luai and Brian To'o, as well as workhorse back-rower Liam Martin, have been named for their Blues debuts alongside Penrith co-captains Nathan Cleary and Isaah Yeo.

Luai's rise to the NSW five-eighth jersey means Jack Wighton will be the bench utility as Cleary and Luai reprise a halves partnership they first struck up as 15-year-olds in Penrith's junior system.

Fittler is leaning on his junior club's strong representation to help atone for their upset defeat at the hands of Queensland in what was dubbed the "unloseable" 2020 series.

The elite quartet - Wayne Bennett, Mal Meninga, Craig Bellamy and Cameron Smith - have all offered their unqualified support for the retired Melbourne Storm fullback to take charge of the Maroons this year.

Bennett, who steered an underdog Queensland team to win last year’s title, was expected to retain the position. However, the QRL prefers a full-time coach, leading Bennett to announce last week he would concentrate on coaching the Rabbitohs in his final season at Redfern.

Kurt Capewell will to start in the back row, with Edrick Lee and Valentine Holmes on the wings, Corey Allan at fullback and Dane Gagai and Brenko Lee in the centres.

“Cameron (Munster) passed everything and we’re very satisifed with where he’s at,” Bennett said.

“We won’t know until this morning to see if he (Xavier Coates) can train. He’s 50/50 at the moment.

“Edrick Lee will come in.”

“We’ll get (Brenko Lee) through training today, we’re confident we’ll do that. He was good on Sunday, so pretty confident he’ll play.”

Peter V’landys said after the disappointing Game I ratings that Origin would most likely return to the middle of the season, unless there was drastic improvement in Game II.

Nationally across five city metro markets 1.654 million viewers tuned to see the Blues beat the Maroons 34-10 at ANZ Stadium to force a decider at Suncorp next week.

The numbers were a slight improvement on the series opener in Adeliade, which came in at 1.6 million, but is still a significant drop of nearly 16 per cent or 306,000 viewers on Game II of the 2019 series at 1.96 million.

The Blues, who have won the last two series, started brightly and opened up a 10-0 lead at the interval after tries from Damien Cook and Josh Addo-Carr.

Queensland hit back after the break as Alex Brimson, Xavier Coates and Cameron Munster crossed the whitewash.

Addo-Carr added a late second try, but the Maroons held on in Adelaide.

NSW won back-to-back series for the first time since 2005 last year, but they lost momentum after the break as Queensland came out inspired by their half time team-talk from former England coach Wayne Bennett.

Results confirmed the good news for Coates and the Maroons released a statement to say he had "shown significant improvement" and their medical staff anticipate he will be fit to play on Wednesday.

The young Bronco suffered shoulder damage at training on Sunday.

Queensland captain Daly Cherry-Evans earlier said he was confident Coates would be able to take his place and wanted to give him as much time as possible to prove his fitness.

Coates was one of eight rookies named to make his debut in the Ampol State of Origin series opener on Wednesday night in Adelaide.

Walker and Rabbitohs teammates Damien Cook and Cameron Murray, along with Canberra duo Jack Wighton and Nick Cotric, were selected on Sunday after their teams were eliminated from the NRL’s finals series over the weekend.

The South Sydney five-eighth was dropped after his debut in Origin I last year but Blues coach Brad Fittler recently indicated he was a fair chance of leapfrogging Roosters pivot Luke Keary in the race to replace James Maloney in the NSW No.6 jersey.

"Cody Walker - he's been awesome, absolutely awesome," Fittler said.

A final call on Ponga's availability for the Maroons will be delayed until after the gun No.1 has a labral tear in his left shoulder assessed by a specialist, with Newcastle players undergoing end-of-season medicals on Tuesday.

Queensland are yet to name the initial members of their 27-man Origin squad and they will likely make that announcement later this week.

Titans livewire AJ Brimson looms as the most likely fullback replacement option if Ponga is unavailable, while Cameron Munster and Moses Mbye have also had plenty of experience at the back in previous NRL seasons.