Origin’s former try scoring record holder Dale Shearer says Queensland’s new fullback Greg Inglis and the man he replaces – Billy Slater – are not that dissimilar.

Physically, Slater, 178cm and 89kg, and Inglis who is 195cm and 106kg, are poles apart.

But Shearer said performance-wise Inglis, who’ll fill in for Slater in Wednesday night’s State of Origin decider, were not that different.

“I think it’s just their size, it’s deceiving,” said Shearer, who played 26 Origins between 1985-96.

“Greg has got that speed, he can get around players and he’s got the bonus of a big palm (fend) up high,” Shearer told AAP after Inglis was confirmed as Slater’s replacement on Friday.

“He’s got everything most fullbacks have got.

“I can see (Cameron) Smith and (Cooper) Cronk slipping him inside balls around the ruck, they’ll still have that understanding from his Storm days.”

Shearer, an elusive runner with an extra gear, held the record with 12 Origin tries until Inglis blew past him in this series.

“It was bound to happen. To be honest I thought Billy Slater might have beaten him to it but he’s got away from him a bit now,” said Shearer, who took 27 games to get his 12 tries while Inglis has notched 13 in 17 games.

Shearer however reckons he’d have scored a lot more tries had the cross field bomb been a tactic during his playing days.

“The game has changed a bit and they do a lot of those cross field kicks which we didn’t do, it was more skill and hard yakka back then,” he said.

“The cross field play probably would have suited me when I was playing fullback.”

Shearer, who suffered a serious neck injury in a high speed car crash on the Sunshine Coast in 2009, is famous for ringing Queensland selectors just before each Origin game to let them know he was available.

When he heard Slater was in doubt, he considered playing a few games for the local Coolum side in case Queensland needed him.

“The QRL have banned me anyway because of my neck injury but it would have been great to get a few games in before Origin …. I might have got the call,” he laughed.