After a bit of a delay as we waited to see what would happen with Wade Graham, we now know the official squads for game two of the 2016 State of Origin series up in Brisbane. Both Laurie Daley and Kevin Walters have made minor changes to their respective squads, both were forced through injury/suspension and while that's all good for the Maroons, many thought that Daley would make further tweaks regardless of who was available.

Boyd Cordner has once again suffered a long-term injury as he injured his toe in scoring New South Wales' try in Sydney. Graham was to replace Cordner out on the left edge and I viewed it as an exciting opportunity for NSW to add some x-factor to their attack as that was their major weakness in game one, as it has been in their past failings. Graham is a skilled player with an educated left-boot and a slick pair of hands, while also ticking all the boxes as a forward with a big frame and great mobility.

No point dwelling on what could have been though as Graham has been ruled out and Tyson Frizzell comes into the squad to replace him. Daley has put himself into a weird corner, complicating matters by naming Bryce Cartwright as a 'development player' and then bringing Frizell into the squad to replace Graham. To me, this smells like Daley has over-thought everything with this 'development player' concept but let's not worry about that just yet.

Frizell comes in and he's much closer to Cordner's style of play than Graham's. Frizell is a powerful runner of the footy with a great offload, but he lacks the all-round skill of Graham and this is why I'd rather see Greg Bird start on the left edge with Frizell coming off a big, aggressive NSW bench to add some punch. NSW have generally lacked a spark and/or skill as they've tended to roll with toughness instead, Bird offers plenty of toughness but a staple of his play in leading a solid Gold Coast Titans team this year has been his all-round ability.

Bird can throw cut-out pass, he can put on some footwork and get through the line, he can hit a hole and he can put boot-to-ball when needed. Bird offers so much more on an edge than he does in the middle of the field, so I'd prefer to see him on that left edge where he can feed Michael Jennings. 

That would give NSW a bench of Dylan Walker, Andrew Fifita, David Klemmer and Frizell. Frizell can come on, adding his powerful running into the mix along with that of Fifita and Klemmer. If Frizell does start then he can expect Queensland to throw plenty of traffic his way, which as a solid NRL player he will be able to physically handle but Frizell will be tested in making the right decisions and that's not easy to do when you have Jonathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk combining down their right edge with players in motion as they did in game one.

The only change for Queensland is Jacob Lillyman coming in for Nate Myles, with Josh McGuire slotting into the starting prop spot while Lillyman will come off the bench. Everyone associated with the Maroons who has been asked about Lillyman has said that they know exactly what Lillyman will offer, that he was unlucky to miss out on game one and that he's done the job in this arena many times before.

I don't disagree and Lillyman has earned the right through solid Origin performances to be an automatic replacement selection, but the ability of McGuire must also have played some sort of role in all of this. Lillyman will come off the bench and do the same job that he's done in most of his previous Origin games, so it's business as usual for him in that regard and that's thanks to McGuire. McGuire is fairly similar to Myles in that he's a workhorse prop who is busy tackling and carting the footy up, plus he can be trusted defensively to do a job in the middle.
While much of the attention will revolve around Lillyman, don't sleep on what a big moment this is for McGuire as he's getting his first start in the Queensland No.10 jersey and you'd be silly not to think that McGuire has a long future ahead of him as one of Queensland's starting props.

Kyle Feldt is in the Maroons camp, as cover for Dane Gagai who is battling injury and Ethan Lowe has been called in as 18th-Man. This is where the difference between a settled system north of the border and NSW's weird 'development player' concept stands out as the Maroons simply rotate fringe Origin players through that 18th-Man role (game one it was Gavin Cooper), while NSW has created its own little position in the squad.

There'll be a preview early next week, but a week out from game two, Queensland still look like a well-oiled machine. Compare that to NSW, who still have distractions coming out of their ears and a tough task of heading up to Brisbane looks impossible right now.