QUEENSLAND coach Mal Meninga said yesterday his trump game-breaker Greg Inglis has needed his "crap detector", but that he has been unaffected by the barrage of negative press that has branded him a NSW turncoat.

With the state-of-origin decider against NSW tonight at Sydney's ANZ Stadium and the spectacular way he helped Queensland level the series last month, Inglis has been the subject of reports in NSW questioning the legitimacy of his playing for the Maroons.

Inglis was born in Kempsey and grew up in the Macksville and Bowraville region of the NSW North Coast, and played his first senior game for Newcastle's Hunter Sports High, but three years ago, pledged his allegiance to the Maroons, an issue that has hit fever pitch during the past week as the teams went into camp.

Meninga said he had spoken to Inglis about the negative publicity. "Greg's had that crap detector on all week," Meninga said.

"There's been an enormous amount of stuff written up about him and I've talked to Greg about it and he basically doesn't read it. He doesn't need to, he just relies on what he did very well prior to the Origin II and prepares well."

NSW coach Craig Bellamy, who also coaches Inglis' National Rugby League team Melbourne, said he had devised plans to counter the 21-year-old's brilliance.

But he would not confirm speculation that among those strategies was switching noted defender Matt Cooper on to marking Inglis. Bellamy would say only that swapping Cooper with debutant Joel Monaghan, who is officially listed as Inglis' opponent, was "certainly possible but at this stage, we'll be starting Matt Cooper on our left and Joel Monaghan on our right.

"… We've worked on a couple of things this week that hopefully might blunt Greg's effectiveness but again, we all know what he is going to do, it's stopping him that's the hard part. It's not only about Joel, it's about the defenders around him as well."

The Blues face a huge task to reverse the result of the second origin clash after Queensland claimed a 30-0 victory in Brisbane.

NSW has made five changes to the team that lost in Brisbane and will field two rookies in Monaghan and teenage half-back Mitchell Pearce in tonight's game.

Bellamy was no more forthcoming in answering questions on other team line-up speculation. But Meninga, who said the Maroons would start as named because "we don't have to play games", was willing to provide his thoughts, saying he believed forward Willie Mason would start on the bench, with Ben Cross coming into the starting line-up.

He also said he thought Pearce would remain in the starting line-up — despite reports that he could be relegated to the bench for the opening stanza — with NSW wary not let the teenage son of Blues legend Wayne Pearce get "eaten up by nervous energy" as he waited for his time to enter the fray.

■ The Melbourne Storm has included its nine state-of-origin representatives in its team for the round-17 clash against Canberra this weekend at Olympic Park.

But emerging teenager Joseph Tomane has retained his spot, being named on the interchange, with Antonio Kaufusi 18th man.

Storm's hopes of retaining back-rower Sika Manu have taken a blow, with Manu's manager Chris Orr yesterday saying there had been a late rush in interest from several clubs. It had been believed that North Queensland had previously been the Storm's main bidding rival. Orr said a decision would be made this week.