Cameron McInnes is as honest as the day is long, a tackling machine who will work himself to a standstill on Wednesday night at Accor Stadium.
Isaah Yeo is a much different kind of lock – the passing skills of a half with the size of a prop, he is the benchmark for the ball-playing forward in the NRL who can link the pack to the backs.
McInnes is 30 and after a decade and 189 NRL matches of putting every ounce of his body on the line with South Sydney, St George Illawarra and Cronulla, he is finally getting a chance at State of Origin level.
Yeo has been a regular at representative level, playing 11 straight Origins since making his Blues debut in 2020 and was one of the Kangaroos’ vice-captains in their World Cup success a couple of years ago.
New coach Michael Maguire is taking a gamble by starting McInnes at lock for the series opener against Queensland, if you can term a safety first approach a risk.
He is banking on McInnes and first-time captain Jake Trbojevic to soak up Queensland’s early onslaught in the middle of the ruck. To give the Blues a hard edge in the softening up period.
Not in the old-school sense when the first 20 minutes were when the fists would fly but to tackle anything in Maroon that moves.
The Blues paid the price for taking a different tack last year when they put high-impact forwards like Tevita Pangai jnr and Hudson Young in the starting pack and their eagerness to take the fight to Queensland led to errors and costly penalties.
McInnes is the sixth most experienced NSW rookie in Origin history so he won’t suffer from any rushes of his Blues blood.
Trbojevic will also be tucking the ball under a wing with his hit-ups rather than looking to offload and won’t overstep the line with his discipline.
This strategy puts an enormous burden on Payne Haas but this enormous Bronco is the kind of luxury item that Maguire can rely upon to get the Maroons on the back foot with his early carries with edge forwards Liam Martin and Angus Crichton eating up metres on the back of his quick play-the-balls.
All the improvements Brisbane have made at club level in the past two seasons stems from the one-two punch of Haas putting defenders on their back, rather than the other way around, to generate ruck speed with Patrick Carrigan multiplying that effect on the next carry.
Isaah Yeo of the Blues is tackled (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Yeo, meanwhile, will cool his heels on the bench before getting a run midway through the first half when defensive lines are starting to gray.
In theory, it is the perfect time for someone with his sublime skills to be able to give NSW a point of difference in attack, especially considering they are without their first-choice playmaker in his Panthers accomplice, Nathan Cleary, with Nicho Hynes and Jarome Luai taking on more responsibility than they’ve ever had at this level.
It’s unwise to read too much into last year’s dead rubber at the same venue but Yeo was used as an interchange impact injection in what turned out to be Brad Fittler’s last match as coach when the Blues thumped Queensland to regain some lost pride.
The only Blues forward who created a line break in the 24-10 triumph, Fittler waited until the 26th minute to bring him on as his first interchange of the night and then he played out the rest of the match.
Yeo leads all regular locks for total try involvements in 2024 with eight, tackle breaks (28) and touches per game (32). McInnes, not so much, playing a part in a try just twice in his 11 outings for Cronulla, making 17 breaks and getting his hands on the pill around 22 times on average.
His defensive output is elite – his 38 tackles per game is second among locks only to Cowboys counterpart Reuben Cotter’s 39.
But it is arguable whether McInnes’ tackling prowess is actually better than Yeo’s. The Penrith co-captain has a better tackle efficiency (94% to 92%) and has been part of just one try cause while the Sharks skipper has conceded five from the same number of matches.
In Origin, Yeo’s career tackling efficiency is an elite 96.51%, definitely the kind of player you want to see alongside you in the defensive line.
Whichever way you slice and dice it, Maguire is rolling the dice somewhat by keeping Yeo on the pine at kick-off, particularly given he is missing a ton of experience in the form of his injured star trio of Cleary, Cameron Murray and Tom Trbojevic.
The Blues have actually won two of the three matches Yeo has been a benchie, compared to a 3-3 record when he has started.
And in true NSW fashion, the new coach will get the benefit of the doubt as part of the honeymoon period in coming into the job … for all of 80 minutes on Wednesday night before he will be under interrogation if ploys like leaving Yeo on the bench don’t work out.