Only one game into his State of Origin career, forward Trent Loiero has been named to start for the Maroons as they attempt to return serve against the Blues in Game Two.
Coming off the bench and playing 36 minutes on debut, Loiero was solid with two tackle breaks in his 62 run metres, but like the rest of the Queensland pack, didn’t make the kind of impact he would have wanted.
Loiero is grateful to coach Billy Slater for handing him another crack in Game Two and after being named at lock ahead of Pat Carrigan, he is ready to put in a bigger stint for his state.
“For sure,” Loiero said.
“I think nerves were high in Game One and that’s probably the biggest game I’ve played in my life, alongside the grand final last year.
“Nerves were high, but I thought I did my job and played my part, so I’ll be looking to build on that and hopefully get a better result.
“Someone of Bill’s calibre, if he’s believing in you, that obviously gives you belief in yourself.
“But I’m pretty confident in my game and the work I’ve done over the past couple of years, so if I’m there playing in the 13 role, I’ll be there to do a job, and I’m confident I’ll be able to do that.
“I have faith in the boys alongside me, the spine and everyone who’s out there to help me do my job and play my part.”
In naming the side, Slater said Loiero had earned a recall after impressing him with his output during his time on the field.
“I felt he earnt another opportunity to play for Queensland,” Slater said.
“I thought he was quite good actually in all the things he did out on the field.
“He brings a fair bit to the footy team.”
Speaking after the Game One loss, Loiero’s Storm teammate Harry Grant was candid about how the team played and had a harsh assessment of his own performance.
Unfortunately for Grant, Queensland are yet to win a game with him starting – having previously formed an effective combination with Ben Hunt who is out injured – but the game's premier dummy half knows how important his contribution can be.
“Personally, I feel very disappointed in some real moments of the game, I let the team down with some penalties, ill-discipline and then they just got a fair bit of momentum and went on and capitalised,” Grant said.
“It's just that discipline, there was probably a couple, that one on [Zac] Lomax, that penalty sort of led to a little bit of them having field position and then just probably footy smarts of putting pressure on Cleary when we had a short defensive line.
“Probably in hindsight I wouldn't do that, but that's just part of it when you're in the game and you're touching the ball first, so you've got to make those decisions pretty quickly and had a few that I would like to change.”
For Loiero, the task of the forwards was simple to turn around the result in Game Two on Wednesday in Perth, with a focus on discipline a key as well as muscling up to the Blues pack.
“We did our review … and he (Slater) was pretty stern as he should be,” Loiero said.
“We were stern with each other, there were a few hard conversations as there should be after a hard loss like that, and we’re just looking to write our wrongs.
“We’ve learnt our lessons, and we’ll be looking to move forward in Game Two and put our best foot forward.
“To play this game, everyone's got that aggression, you have to be tough to play rugby league so it’s in all of us.
“But I think you’ve got to use it in the right way, as a team we’ve got to use it in the right way and together, and I think we’ll get the best out of each other if we do it together.
“It’s a physical game, you need to be physical, but by the same token it’s not all argy-bargy, you’ve got to be able to play with a bit of brains, and we didn’t do that last game.
“We played a bit silly, made a few dumb mistakes and gave away a few stupid penalties. That ended up hurting us but we’ll be righting our wrongs.”
Match: Maroons v Blues
Game 2 -
home Team
Maroons
away Team
Blues
Venue: Optus Stadium, Perth
