NSW State of Origin coach Laurie Daley has declared he won't reveal his new Blues captain until he names his team for the series opener.
Prop Aaron Woods is considered the frontrunner among a host of candidates to take over from long-serving skipper Paul Gallen, including Boyd Cordner, Josh Jackson and Wade Graham.
Veteran rake Robbie Farah is the only player apart from Gallen to have led the Blues under Daley's watch.
"You'll find out the night of May 21 I think, when we announce the team. We won't announce who it'll be until right up until that date," said Daley at the Origin series launch in Sydney on Monday.
"We don't know who's going to be available. Until then, we'll keep it pretty close to the chest but we haven't even discussed who the captain will be at this stage.
"We've got an idea of a group we're looking at and seeing how they're developing."
Woods, who hasn't missed an Origin game since debuting in 2013, was on hand with Daley to officially kickoff the countdown to game one, which will be played at Suncorp Stadium on May 31.
"Woodsy's a great leader and he'd certainly be someone that we'd consider," Daley said.
He's been a part of the team now for the last couple of years and he's grown as a leader for the Tigers.
"He's certainly learnt on the run with what he's been through over the two years. But he's certainly figured in a lot of the discussions."
Wests Tigers captain Woods played down his chances of leading the Blues but admitted Gallen's representative retirement has left a gaping hole in the Blues' squad.
Gallen signed off last year holding the record for most games as captain of the state.
"It'll be difficult without big Galza," said Woods.
"Obviously when you normally refer to NSW the last 5-6 years, it's always big Gal, big G-train. It's going to be different without the big fella here.
"Some young guy's going to have to step up now. It opens up a spot for Dave Klemmer, big Pig (Shannon Boyd) from Canberra, he's been playing some really good footy, and Jake Trbojevic.
"We've got some really good forwards, but everyone's going to have to pick up their game because Gal does 20 hit ups and 40 tackles. We're going to have to share the workload around."
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