Maroons skipper Daly Cherry-Evans talking to the players after the game. Photo: nrl.com
Queensland Maroons coach Paul Green was bitterly disappointed with his teams showing in State of Origin game one but believes they can turn it around quickly.
The Maroons were completely outplayed through the middle of the field early on and struggled to regain ascendency as the game went on.
“We got beaten to the punch early in that game,” Green said at his post-match press conference.
“They really dominated around the ruck area and defensively we couldn’t get any control and then once we felt uncomfortable in that position, we tried to trick out way out which you can’t do in Origin.”
“It was very disappointing.”
Despite an injury interrupted preparation, Green was not prepared to let that be an excuse for his team’s poor performance.
“It’s easy to probably point at that but you can’t make any soft excuses, it is what it is,” he said.
“There have been times when teams have had that sort of preparation and got it right on the night and trust that we had some good players in our team and that they were ready to play but as a group we weren’t tonight.”
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With a disappointing result like that, there are often call for wholesale change.
Green didn’t commit to that mantra and instead insisted he and his coaching team will look at not only the game but the preparation to ensure the result isn’t repeated in game two.
“We will have a look at the game closely and also have a look at our prep too and see if there is anything glaring that we got wrong from that point of view because from kick off tonight we weren’t in the contest,” he said.
Maroons captain Daly Cherry-Evans remained circumspect after the loss maintaining while there is still work to be done, they are still alive in the series.
“Tonight’s damage was pretty big, but it is only one nil,” he said.
“I know the score line reflects pretty poorly on us but the reality is it is only one nil and there is still two games to go and we can turn the tide, they do have a lot of momentum in their corner and we have a lot of work to do.”
Green agreed with his skipper, stating that while the score line suggests they are a long way off, if they can tighten up a few areas they will be back in the contest.
“If we can improve in a couple of key areas, particularly defensively, I’m not talking about tries conceded I am talking about trying to get some control there because one thing flows into another in a game,” he said.
“Our last play options were pretty poor because it didn’t feel like we had any time to get set and to execute properly.”
“So if we can fix a couple of those key things up a lot can flow off the back of that but we are going to have to work hard to fix that.”
The hard work starts now, with just over two weeks until game two, the Maroons camp will have to work hard and fast if they are to get back into the series at Suncorp Stadium.
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