The Queensland Maroons will go for a fourth series win in five years on Wednesday evening, but the ever brutal demands of State of Origin mean the player pathways is always going to be explored beyond the current side.
The Queensland side also have some players at the back-end of their Origin careers.
Kurt Capewell could be in his swansong series, Cameron Munster, joking as he may have been after Game 2, indicated he knows his time is closer to the end than the start, and even then, Billy Slater has made it clear during his time coaching he has no hesitation making an enormous call if he thinks it needs to be made.
Queensland do have some excellent young talent on the way through, and others who could well have made an argument to play this year.
Here are the most likely players to debut next year for the Maroons.
1. Jaxon Purdue (North Queensland Cowboys)
Most felt that Purdue was probably going to debut this year right up until the Queensland side was picked for the series opener in Sydney and he wasn't on it.
Versatile as they come, Purdue is able to play centre, fullback or five-eighth, and has been fantastic in a Cowboys side who are well and truly ahead of expectations this year.
He might be the second Cowboy at the top of this list, but there is no doubt right now around their dominance within the Queensland market.
If the Cowboys do have a multitde of others playing Origin, led by Reuben Cotter and Tom Darden next year, then it could make the prospect of picking Purdue as a super sub type of role off the bench even more appealing to Slater.
Gray and Bula ?
I thought Walsh had been anointed as the full-back of the future for the Maroons.
I’d never considered anyone else.
Mam ? Hmmm. I think Billy Slater is smart enough to realise that Mam is sufficiently unpopular for his off-field behaviour that selecting him – no matter how well his playing – would be a public-relations error.