Mal Meninga puts loyalty aside to inject new blood Manly's Daly Cherry-Evans, left, and Canberra's Josh Papalii replace Ashley Harrison and David Shillington in the Queensland team for Origin II next week. FIVE players introduced into the Queensland Origin team in the space of 12 months proves there are cracks starting to appear in coach Mal Meninga's mantra of showing loyalty to incumbents. The wily former Test captain never had to question his theory before as his players kept rising to the Origin occasion, even if their club form had lost a little polish. But in Sydney two weeks ago, loyal servants such as David Shillington and Ashley Harrison did not rise. And with energetic and classy young players like 21-year-old Josh Papalii and 24-year-old Daly Cherry-Evans doing their time in the Emerging Maroons squad over the past two seasons, it was time to promote someone new rather than pat the non-performers on the back and wish them better luck next game. Players like Mat Gillett and Ben Te'o, who made their Origin debuts last year, also came through the emerging squad, where the maestro Wayne Bennett handles the training camps. Chris McQueen is another graduate from that school. "It's difficult making changes because obviously we've got a culture of loyalty," Meninga said yesterday after cutting Shillington, 29, and Harrison, 32, who have 22 Origin games between them. But we had some tough decisions in regards to the footy team moving forward. I thought new faces, fresh faces, more enthusiasm for the team was important. Meninga confessed telephoning Shillington and Harrison to relay the news was one of the hardest things he's had to do in his eight years in charge. "It's difficult and (it's) one of the reasons I don't want to coach at NRL level because you get attached to the players," he said. But I had to be honest. We're going through a little mini-transition, I suppose. And I'm glad I'm around to do that. It's hard to keep refusing the guys who have been knocking on the door for so long. So we've opened up a couple of doors. Meninga has rarely made such calls. In 2006, when Queensland started its seven-year run, players such as Greg Inglis, Matt Scott, Nate Myles and Sam Thaiday made their debut. They haven't moved since. And they joined a peleton containing Cam Smith, Johnathan Thurston, Justin Hodges, Brent Tate, Billy Slater and Corey Parker, who are also still hanging around. But what happened yesterday will come around again as five of them are now 30. But more immediately, Meninga wants Papalii's aggression and Cherry-Evans's creativity. The Manly halfback has played hooker in the emerging-squad camps. "We've used Shaun Berrigan and Cooper (Cronk) in that role before," Meninga said. I think Daly is a bigger body; physically he's bigger than most people think he is. He has such great belief and he's got ability, obviously in the halves but also around No 9. He's also got the ability to play backrow a bit and also in the centres. So he does add a bit of versatility to our side. Papalii also had the seal of approval from the established players. He's very combative when he plays," Meninga said. Origin is like that; you need to have that mentality and I think he suits Origin.