The thing about Uate is that if he's on, and putting his body on the line on both sides of the ball, you want him in your origin team. At his confident best, he's an asset to any team. At his best he's an extra forward in your team, plus an x-factor match winner from the wing - and can bust a game wide open without any help from his team whatsoever.
He's not really playing like that at the moment, though... and at his worst he's a complete liability under the high ball and in defense in general. You don't pick him in his current form, and it's a pretty easy omission. If I were a rep selector, I'd always have my eye on Aku's form, but wouldn't have a problem putting a line through his name if he's not on fire.
As for the thread topic... we could have the top 4 looking nervously over their shoulders by years end if we find consistency. If our only contributions to the Origin teams are Gidley and Boyd (or even Mason, too) then we could actually claim a top 4 spot ourselves over the origin period... with quite able backups for all of those players. Whilst ever Mullen is on the field and his forwards are giving him space, we'll be dangerous. His form is exemplary at the moment... and he's the only bloke in our squad that we simply cannot come close to replacing if he's not available. He is looking really ominous at the moment... and is turning into the player we thought he was going to be years ago. It's amazing how Bennett always manages to get his cream to rise to the top.