He’s the reigning Dally M Medallist and Indigenous All Stars match-winner, but Ben Barba doesn’t deserve to dislodge Billy Slater as Queensland’s No.1 according to Maroons five-eighth Johnathan Thurston.

Barba kicked off the NRL season with a brilliant three-try effort in the 32-6 demolition of the NRL All Stars on Saturday night, reigniting talk that the magical Canterbury custodian is ready to be elevated into the Queensland side for this year’s State of Origin series.

But the man in charge of steering the Maroons and Kangaroos around, and who also had a hand in all three of Barba’s tries on Saturday, isn’t ready to end his combination with Melbourne’s Slater – who Thurston describes as the best fullback he’s ever seen.

“You would think (he’d be ready for Origin) … a hat-trick (on Saturday) on the back of last season, he has a lot of confidence there at the Bulldogs under Des Hasler,” Thurston said.

“We have a wealth of talent but he could come off the bench and play a few positions.

“(But) I played a lot of football alongside Billy, he is the best fullback I’ve seen.

“He brings you a different style of fullback but Billy has the (Queensland fullback) jersey sewn up for a while.

“Benny is a tremendous player, no doubt about that, you just give him space and he does the rest.”

Barba heaped praise on Thurston’s ability to control the match with his sharp running, slick passing and impressive all-round kicking game.

“When you’ve got guys like Princey (Scott Prince) and JT (Thurston) in the halves it makes my job a lot easier, I was just there to finish it off,” Barba said.

“We’ve got some pretty good halves at the club, they took us to a grand final last year.

“Obviously playing with Johnno (Thurston) was pretty special.”

Barba, who felt some minor hamstring soreness during the game, argued with medical staff to let him keep playing injured because the game meant so much to him.

Despite leading 18-6 into the last quarter he was worried the game was not won.