Cooper Cronk insists there will be no selection subterfuge and Anthony Milford, not Michael Morgan, will be his Queensland halves partner come the Origin opener next Wednesday night in Brisbane.
Now, he's just got to make it all sing. Cronk and Johnathan Thurston (13 games), like Thurston and Darren Lockyer before that (18 games), purr like a German luxury car when they are united. Cronk hasn't played any of his 19 Origins (the first six games off the bench) without Thurston by his side.
With Thurston losing the race to heal his injured shoulder, the 22-year-old Milford gets his chance to step into the frame. All of the Queensland players are struck with his natural abilities, but even Cronk can't be sure the chemistry will be immediate.
If Queensland have been blessed with the quality of their halves in their golden era, they've been equally blessed to have them work in tandem so flawlessly. It's easy to wonder what could go wrong with the likes of Cronk, Lockyer and Thurston but it has never been an exact science.
Thurston's combination with Daly Cherry-Evans, who deputised for an injured Cronk in 2015, never reached any great heights. Like any great point guard, Cronk tends to make others around him better but concedes the proof will be in the pudding.
"There's the opportunity that it could be really good, there's the opportunity that it might not be good. That's the honest truth about it," Cronk said.
"I don't leave any stone unturned in terms of my preparation. I'll be prepared for the game come Wednesday night and I'll help Anthony Milford do that.
"We haven't played together and I'm going to work my backside off this week to make sure that we can fast track our relationship and get the performance that Queensland needs.
"We can train and trial everything but we can't answer that until about 9.30 next Wednesday night."
The defensive option for Queensland coach Kevin Walters would be to start North Queensland five-eighth Morgan, a tough, reliable and now seasoned representative player.
But Cronk believes it will be chips in with Milford, with any thought of promoting the highly versatile Morgan likely to undermine some of the interchange rotations Walters will have planned beforehand.
"I wouldn't have thought so. There's that flexibility obviously to be able to do that but I'm pretty sure Kevvie is a man of his word and the way he went about naming the team, Milford will play there.
"The thing that Michael Morgan has done over the last few series is that he's brought impact off the bench so if you move that around that changes the dynamic a little bit too. We haven't had those discussions but it will probably be as named."
As sure as the sun comes up, NSW will throw some big bodies at Milford but his teammates have no doubt he can handle the examination. Cronk said more often than not, those moments could be the deciding factor in a game.
"We're all sitting here talking about the attack, Origin is about defence and hanging in there and he just needs to make sure that he's doing all those right things.
"A lot of people talk about the big plays and the big Origin moments, the reason those things happen is because you do the little things well. Little things make big things happen."
Thurston said he was "devastated" when medical staff gave him the bad news and must now hope to improve in time for game two in Sydney and game three back in Brisbane. In his final Origin campaign, it would be the most bitter blow if he failed to take the field.
