There's selection conundrums left, right and centre for New South Wales' coach Laurie Daley and while he may be able to rely on a strong core of wise heads, new Queensland coach Kevin Walters must also contend with a few tricky selections. 

I shall start with Walters himself, he's been promoted to he head coach gig after spending a few years as Mal Meninga's assistant as well as helping out Wayne Bennett in Brisbane. Walters' job isn't overly difficult when you consider the players he has at his disposal, blokes who have been in the Origin arena many times, blokes who are the best in their respective positions, giving Walters the talent along with the footy-smarts that see the likes of Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Jonathan Thurston effectively coaching themselves.

Walters knows these players as he's worked with these players at this level before and that's going to help him through a tricky period in his Origin coaching debut. Earlier this year, Walters decided to uphold the Maroons' standards/values etc and suspend Ben Hunt, Dylan Napa, Anthony Milford, Jarrod Wallace, Edrick Lee, Cameron Munster and Valentine Holmes and Chris Grevsmuhl. This caused a bit of drama at the time and now with injuries to Billy Slater and Will Chambers, plus the retirement of Justin Hodges, Walters could have reason to reconsider.

From that group of suspended players, I've got Napa down as the only bloke who could have genuinely worked his way into the Maroons team. Milford deserves the call up as he's continued to improve, now playing as one of the best halves in the NRL but Milford can't be picked over Cronk/Thurston, nor can Milford be selected over Michael Morgan. Morgan fills a unique utility role off the bench where he adds the ball-playing of a half, but defends as a middle-forward, effectively playing as a lock. Milford would have to defend in the middle, attacking and defending better than Morgan, Morgan is in pretty nice form himself.

Napa would have been handy as a big, mobile, enthusiastic forward to counter NSW's big forwards and he was unlucky to miss last year's series. The Maroons do have middle-forwards who would have made it hard for Napa to be selected though as Matt Scott and Corey Parker are still the best in the business, Josh McGuire's footy is designed for Origin, Nate Myles has done the job before, both Sam Thaiday and Aidan Guerra can do a job in the middle and there's no reason not to roll with Josh Papalii/Jacob Lillyman off the bench.

Thurston, Cronk, Scott, Smith, Myles, Guerra, Thaiday, Parker, Morgan, Papalii, Gillett, McGuire/Lillyman ... they'll all likely be there for another run this year, which leaves the funk in the outside back positions.

The big loss for me is Chambers as he's a top-3 NRL centre and had been playing as such with Melbourne up until his injury. Chambers' class was evident last year when he got the call up to Origin and was one of Queensland's best players, it was pretty obvious that Chambers was cut out for this level of footy and that a long rep career was ahead of him. 

Now though, Queensland don't have a centre. They do have Greg Inglis and more importantly they have Darius Boyd who is in great form at fullback with Brisbane. I like Inglis at fullback with this Maroons team as he's got a great connection with the play-makers and he's always sniffing around the middle of the field off their shoulders. Whether that lines up with Queensland's resources, I'm not quite sure.

Queensland have depth on the wing, not at centre which is why I'd slot Boyd in at fullback and push Inglis up into centre. Boyd offers more ball-playing than Inglis, so that could be a nice attacking weapon for the Maroons and I'd be excited to see Boyd combine with Thurston and Cronk, especially with his confidence soaring through the roof. 

Boyd at fullback, Inglis at centre which leaves us with two wing spots and a centre spot. Dane Gagai was immense on debut last year and he should be given another run this year, where though? I'd keep him on the wing and bring Justin O'Neill from the Cowboys in to play centre. Gagai has shown he's capable while O'Neill has the Cowboys combinations in his favour, so who's the other winger?

It's a race between Kyle Feldt and Corey Oates. Both are highly talented young wingers; tall, strong, good in the air, safe hands and quick enough. Feldt has the Cowboys combinations sussed while Oates has scored a fair chunk of his tries in the NRL by catching a pass from Boyd. I don't really have a preference, either way Walters will have a big winger on debut, Oates offers a greater physical presence and has a slight advantage carting the ball back from kicks so let's go with him.

Boyd, Gagai, O'Neill, Inglis, Oates, Cronk, Thurston, Scott, Smith, Myles, Guerra, Thaiday, Parker ... Morgan, McGuire, Papalii, Gillett (Feldt and Lillyman in the squad as well).