Here's the bloody squads!

New South Wales

NSW
1 Josh Dugan
2 Daniel Tupou 
3 Michael Jennings
4 Josh Morris
5 Will Hopoate
6 Mitchell Pearce
7 Trent Hodkinson
8 Aaron Woods
9 Robbie Farah (c)
10 James Tamou
11 Ryan Hoffman
12 Beau Scott
13 Josh Jackson

Interchange
14 Boyd Cordner
15 Trent Merrin
16 Andrew Fifita
17 David Klemmer
18 Tyson Frizell

Queensland

1 Billy Slater
2 Darius Boyd
3 Greg Inglis
4 Justin Hodges
5 Will Chambers
6 Johnathan Thurston
7 Cooper Cronk
8 Matt Scott
9 Cameron Smith (c) 
10 Nate Myles 
11 Aidan Guerra
12 Sam Thaiday
13 Corey Parker

Interchange
14 Michael Morgan
15 Josh McGuire
16 Matt Gillett
17 Jacob Lillyman
18 Dylan Napa

It's time folks, time for a bit of State Of Origin which we all love. The squads have been named and we'll run through who Mal Meninga and Laurie Daley have selected and then nek week we'll come back to look at how each team is going to fuck the other up. Lovely.

Queensland have kept things reasonably as per their schedule, there's a nice balance of the great band of veterans who have served them so well along with a few new faces. The most contentious backline selections were those of Darius Boyd and to a lesser extent Will Chambers. Boyd has been out of action for a while with a bung achilles, but has looked great given the circumstances in his return over the past few weeks and it would have been very rude of Mal not to pick Boyd.

Chambers is the next cab off the rank and has the ability to move one spot wider from his favoured centre spot with ease. He's a big lad but has the speed and footwork to handle himself on the wing, but his ability in the air will be test, both by his own halves and obviously by the New South Wales halves. 

Sidenote - all of Queensland's outside backs besides Billy Slater and Justin Hodges are playing in a different position to their favoured NRL positions.

The Queensland forward is pretty much as we had expected, but the interest sits on the bench where they have named two specialist props in Josh McGuire and Jacob Lillyman. This differs from recent years where they have looked to get slightly smaller forwards with greater mobility and skill to play through the middle. Personally, I reckon it was their downfall last year and having two lads who will punch holes in the NSW defence and be able to handle the big bodies of the NSW bench will be a nice addition.

Lillyman hasn't been tearing Mal's door down demanding he be selection, but I'd imagine that Mal has gone with a relatively safe selection. He knows that Lillyman will buy in to the game plan, do his core job and do it to the standard required. Cue memories of David Taylor trying to do what was required and failing.

McGuire started for Samoa a few weeks ago and now finds himself representing his state, you do the math but whatever. With Lillyman likely to be given a simple job to do, McGuire has a bit more skill and mobility than Lillyman while also possessing a bit of mongrel as well. McGuire is the new breed of NRL prop and that's what the doctor ordered for the Maroons.

Meninga could have promoted Dylan Napa from his 18th man position to replace Daly Cherry-Evans to counter the big NSW forward pack, but instead he's gone for a like for like replacement in Michael Morgan. Morgan has been in career best form for the Cowboys, but that won't be crucial as his role for Queensland will be very similar to what Cooper Cronk and DCE have done in the past. He'll come off the bench and help Cameron Smith with some dummy half duties while also being expected to defend in the middle and cart the ball up, oh and execute the little trick plays designed to make the most of having an extra play maker on the field. Morgan is big enough to handle all of this and should thrive in his debut.

Laurie Daley has made his intentions pretty damn obvious with the bench that will need a few milk crates to reinforce it with all those big boys. Andrew Fifita and David Klemmer will come off the bench, most likely to give Aaron Woods and James Tamou a bit of a rest and will offer plenty of aggression as well as oomph. That rotation will be very interesting as well; will we see the starters come off around the 20 minute mark? Or well Fifita and Klemmer come on closer to half time to offer some impact before and after half time? Heck, I'd love to see Fifita come on somewhere else besides a stereotypical prop position, a bit of freedom to roam and use his freakish running game out wider. 

Obviously there's no Paul Gallen, but Daley has the players at his disposal to more than make up for that loss. 

Josh Jackson will start at lock and he thoroughly deserves it as he's one of the best all round young players in the NRL. I don't imagine he'll play the full 80 minutes, especially with Trent Merrin on the bench but with only Boyd Cordner really offering a edge option off the bench, we could even see Jackson spent some time on the edge. 

That depends on how Ryan Hoffman and Beau Scott are going to be used. Both can do a great job for 80 minutes, but Cordner offers a bit more attacking punch than Scott so we could see Scott do a defensive job to start with then see Cordner replace him.

There has been much discussion about the halves pairing and I love the combination of Mitchell Pearce and Trent Hodkinson. Pearce is a great runner of the ball who also oozes class passing and kicking the footy which will be crucial. He's also a big half who loves to mix it up on defence. How these two work together will be very interesting as they are both halfbacks for their NRL sides and can both do a bit of everything. Will they play left and right? Who will take control of the long kicking and decision making? I actually think that Pearce's running game is perfectly suited to the #6 position, but more on that nek week.

Pearce also has a nice relationship with fellow Roosters Michael Jennings and Daniel Tupou. While James Maloney plays on the left for the Roosters, that relationship could see Pearce hold down the left edge for NSW and make the most of that relationship.

The only real backline position that was up for grabs was William Hopoate's wing spot and I'm more than happy to see him on the wing. He's shown that he hasn't dropped off too much after his mission and he's still a big lad who can run fast. Hopoate has played most of his recent NRL football at either fullback or at centre, so he could struggle with the decision making especially as he's playing alongside a new face in Brett Morris. 

I've got various tingles running through my body, thanks to the anticipation.