Is this the 3rd time in a short period tonight you've pushed the 'for the most part it is true that Dearden didn't bring anything to the table other than fresher/younger legs', and 'wasn't much better than dce might have been in the last 2 origin games' and support that using DCE's form in his younger days.
I'm unsure of the direction you are going or what you are going out of your way to convey and achieve by reason of 3 posts pushing your line of thought, which comes across as far off the mark to me.
Only this season matters as it was this season dearden was required to replace dce. And what he brought unfortunately for dce was intent, guts, running into the line putting his body on the line and defence that dce has very rarely ever displayed, and to be fair I do recall a gutsy standout series display from DCE in his day.
But deardan brought to that team in 2025 what qld needed from their captain dce, and more.
It was a brave move by Slater, and unfortunately one that paid off. In 2 games he won man of the series.
So in regards to your reasoning that for the most part, Dearden did not add anything to this qld team other than younger/fresher legs, I can only quite simply and strongly disagree.