New South Wales Blues head coach Laurie Daley has been implored to hand Keaon Koloamatangi a jersey for Game 2 of the 2025 State of Origin series.
Koloamatangi has been in sparkling form for the South Sydney Rabbitohs since making the move into the middle third of the field last season, and it's now his permanent home.
Coming off one of the greatest performances by a forward of the modern era during a game against the Wests Tigers a few weeks ago, he was well and truly up to par in a high-scoring loss against the New Zealand Warriors on Sunday afternoon.
He topped running metres for South Sydney with 218 from 27 carries in an 80-minute performance while he also crossed for a try and added 40 tackles.
Jai Arrow, who could be yet recalled to Origin for Queensland himself by besieged coach Billy Slater, said he should be in the NSW team for Game 2.
"Keaon deserves to be picked," Arrow said during the post-match press conference.
"Everyone has seen over the past three weeks what he's done, pretty tremendous effort with his numbers. If I was a selector, I'd be thinking fairly strongly about Keaon for sure.
"He's probably one of, if not the best NSW middle at the moment."
Coach Wayne Bennett then said Koloamatangi is putting up numbers only seen by another Blue in Payne Haas.
"Keaon's numbers are great, that's the point," he said.
"He's playing the full 80 minutes, he's not even looking to come off the field. That's the remarkable thing about the middle forwards these days, they do all that work load.
"Payne Haas is really good at it too, but this guy is in that league."
Koloamatangi's chances of a recall may be strong given a knee injury to Mitch Barnett, which could end his season if scans return a dreaded ACL rupture.
Stefano Utoikamanu was in the squad for Game 1, but it's Koloamatangi who has the form to come straight in, while Terrell May is the other option, having been stunningly overlooked by Daley for the series opener, which the Blues won in Brisbane last Wednesday.
