Nine, the owner of this masthead, reported on Monday night Cobbo and the Queensland coaching staff were “not seeing eye to eye”.
Maguire had no idea about the Cobbo dramas and said on Tuesday: “I’m not aware of any of that sort of stuff.”
Cobbo was overlooked in game two, with Slater saying at the time the Broncos centre needed a “rest”.
“He just wasn’t quite right to play game two, and he would be the first to admit it; he’s had a good week at training, and he’s physically ready,” Slater said.
Cobbo has struggled with errors the past six weeks, and will have the job of trying to stop in-form Blues winger Zac Lomax.
Meanwhile, NSW’s most successful coach Phil Gould believes Slater may be under pressure to replace Reece Walsh at fullback if he starts the game poorly.
On his Six Tackles with Gus podcast, Gould discussed if Slater, arguably the greatest No.1 of all time, would “have the bottle” to dump the crowd favourite for Kalyn Ponga if the Blues applied early pressure.
Happy place: Maroons winger Selwyn Cobbo.Credit: Getty Images
Walsh was illegally knocked out by Joseph Suaalii in game one, and struggled to have an impact in game two when he returned from concussion.
“If things aren’t going well early, if NSW is putting a lot of pressure on Reece Walsh early in the contest, and Reece Walsh, with his youth and exuberance, is not hitting the mark early in the game, has the coach got the bottle to replace him with Kalyn Ponga, and say, ‘this isn’t working, we’re not going to get there with this combination, and maybe I need to put Kalyn at the back’,” Gould said.
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When asked about Gould’s comments, Slater said: “Kalyn has trained in multiple positions, and what a luxury to have Kalyn Ponga sitting on the bench when you can put him on anywhere you want … he’ll be playing his role as Kalyn Ponga.”
The Blues enjoyed dinner on Caxton St on Monday night, but Maguire could not believe how quiet the city was.
“It was dead – there was a gentleman and his two kids in NSW jerseys walking down the street, they were the only people there,” Maguire said.