SPORT Walters‘ belief in Maroons sky high

QUEENSLAND coach Kevin Walters has turned up the heat on NSW by declaring the Maroons’ self-belief has gone to another level as they attempt to reclaim the Origin shield in Game Two tonight.

The Maroons completed their captain’s run yesterday without drama, with key trio Dylan Napa, Dane Gagai and Daly Cherry-Evans cleared of injury and illness to run out for Origin’s debut at Perth’s Optus Stadium.

Napa will have his broken wrist heavily strapped, Gagai has overcome flu-like symptoms and Cherry-Evans will put aside shoulder soreness in a bid to pilot the Maroons to an unassailable 2-0 lead before a 60,000 sellout.

While the Blues have carved up their squad, making seven changes, the Maroons are humming along with Walters saying their 18-14 triumph in Game One has only bolstered their collective confidence.

“The belief in this team is something else, it has gone to a new level this week,” Walters said.

“We’ve had a great week’s preparation. Certainly there were a few things we had to work on and improve on. We have done that.

“The trust, everything, they have come together beautifully again.

“We’ve had a couple of new players (Jarrod Wallace and Tim Glasby) come into the side but they have welded on to what is a great Queensland team and we are looking forward to the challenge.

“The guys got a lot of trust from Game One, their performance there. They have a lot of trust in themselves and QUEENSLAND COACH KEVIN WALTERS belief in what they can do here tomorrow night.”

Walters allayed any fears around star fullback Kalyn Ponga, who left the training paddock briefly on Wednesday for treatment on his left calf before returning to practise some goalkicking. “Kalyn is fine,” Walters said. “He’s just had a lot of football this year, he is running a lot of kilometres so we backed him off, but he’s right to go, it looks like it is going to be a fast track.”

Walters said Napa’s injury would not restrict his minutes as starting prop and he backed Wallace to fire off interchange in his recall to the side after being axed for Origin I.

“Dylan doesn’t run on his hands so he will be fine,” Walters said.

“Once the adrenaline starts pumping through his veins we will see Dylan’s best performance at Origin level.

“Wallace will show them, he’s been really good all week with his preparation.

“He’s another player who is obviously very important on our bench, to come on and continue the momentum that our starters create, I have no problem whatsoever, he is going to be really good for us.

“We certainly want to start better. We need to get out of the blocks better and we will do that.”