Smith said yesterday coach Mal Meninga and his panel were intent on remaining a State of Origin force after six successive series victories and believes preparation is one of the keys to their ongoing success.

“We (the selectors) do a fair bit of travel leading into the first Origin game,” Smith said.

“It’s not necessarily only the top-line players either.

“You never know what can happen and you have got to keep a handle on where our futures lies.

“You have got to have plan A, B and C.

“It will be good game at Lavington.

“There has been a lot of discussion about both teams.

“The Raiders needed to improve on last year and I think they have done that and Melbourne is always competitive.”

Smith, who shares the selection duties with Des Morris and Gene Miles and is also an Australian selector, has links to the Raiders and Storm after being a foundation player in Canberra in 1992 alongside Craig Bellamy.

He understands the importance of bringing the NRL to regional centres after growing up at Toowoomba.

“With the advent of rugby league on television these days the local competitions do suffer,” he said.

“Bringing an NRL game to the country is paramount to helping the game grow in those areas.

“Kids watch these blokes on television where as in the old days they used to watch their fathers and uncles at the local oval.”

Although Storm will go into Saturday night’s clash without key players Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk, Bellamy will bring a powerful squad to the Border.

They beat feeder team Brisbane Easts 36-8 at Langlands Park in their trial match at the weekend with the only disappointment being an ACL injury to Slade Griffin.

“It was a real shame to lose Slade early on in the match and that put a bit of a dampener on things, but overall we were happy with the performance of the squad,” Bellamy said.