It's amazing how quick Queensland flipped on Cherry-Evans. He was persona non grata until Game III where they just had to remove Hunt from 7 and he just happened to be the next cab off the rank.
The decision to place the captaincy on him is the right call. There was talk about placing it on Munster with a long term view, but I'm still not sold on him being handed the keys to the kingdom just yet. I prefer the idea of going with a short term view and Cherry-Evans is the most experienced of the lot.
The only concern with Cherry-Evans as captain is that he's been very inconsistent in that role at Manly. In 2017 he did a good job taking Manly to the finals and honestly they were extremely unlucky to be knocked out when they did. However, 2018 was a disaster and he got embroiled in one of the silliest dramas of 2018 and couldn't make ammends. 2019 is up in the air at the moment, Manly seem to be performing even with him off the field, albeit their last game was as bad a loss as any all year.
I was hoping that Michael Morgan could rediscover the form that saw him lead the Cowboys through to the 2017 Grand Final, but he just hasn't found any consistensy so far in 2019. Cherry-Evans basically got in the team via incumbency more than anything else and I'm far from convinced on Queensland's chances. The only hope I have for the Maroons is that they won't have to play in Sydney until Game III.
If Queensland pull off a series win this series, it will go down in folklore as one of the biggest upsets in Origin history. I really hope the new generation of talent can step up, I think it would be great for Origin if you had Kalyn Ponga at his best taking on Latrell Mitchell at his best.