Origin 2021: Coach Paul Green concedes Maroons botched preparation for Townsville opener

Vanquished coach Paul Green vows to learn from his Origin coaching debut smashing and pinpointed an improved preparation as key to his side turning the tables in Brisbane later this month.

TOWNSVILLE, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 09: Daly Cherry-Evans of the Maroons looks on after a Blues try during game one of the 2021 State of Origin series between the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons at Queensland Country Bank Stadium on June 09, 2021 in Townsville, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Paul Green has admitted the Maroons botched their preparation as captain Daly Cherry-Evans vowed the embarrassed Queenslanders would bounce back to save the State of Origin series at Suncorp Stadium.

Green’s first game as Maroons coach resulted in Queensland’s worst-ever loss in Origin’s 41-year history as the Blues racked up a 50-6 annihilation in Townsville on Wednesday night.

After losing the crucial midfield battle, the Maroons were blown off the park by the brilliance of Blues centres Tom Trbojevic and Latrell Mitchell in the 44-point mauling.

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Daly Cherry-Evans was left shattered by the defeat

The defeat thrust the spotlight on Green’s coaching and Queensland’s attitude on the back of last year’s remarkable series victory under Wayne Bennett.

The Maroons carried a number of injured players into camp, with playmakers Cameron Munster (foot) and Harry Grant (hamstring) not playing for a month leading into the game.

Centre Dane Gagai was hospitalised for three days with a severe case of tonsillitis and utility AJ Brimson (knee) was nearly ruled out on match eve.

Green lamented Queensland’s 10-day preparation for the match and said he would learn from the experience heading into Game Two at Suncorp Stadium on June 27.

“It’s a new group in some respects and a new group with me (as coach),” he said.

“What I probably might have let go through the week in terms of execution, I may not have with a bit more experience with them.

“It is what it is. It’s about learning from it and making sure we don’t let it happen again.

“It’s easy to point at (injuries). You can’t make soft excuses. It is what it is.

Paul Green learned some tough lessons on Wednesday night.

“There’s been times when teams have had that sort of preparation but got it right on the night.

“You trust we’ve got some good players in our team and hope they were ready to play, but as a group we weren’t.

“That can contribute to it but we need to get over that and turn up ready to play.”

After hoisting the Origin shield for the first time as captain last year, Cherry-Evans looked a broken man following the record hiding.

The halfback said Queensland had to be honest about their preparation and would leave no stone unturned in their quest to save the series in Brisbane.

“We’ve got to look at our preparation,” Cherry-Evans said.

“To rock up and play like we did, we’ve got a few things wrong, not just in the execution but in the way we prepared.

“We’ve got a bit of time to think about it, but we’ve got the right people to fix it.

Queensland were left shellshocked by game one defeat.

“I’m sure we will (take it personally) – it’s a pretty grim feeling in that shed.

“It’s hard to explain. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I believe we can get out of this.”

Queensland lock Jai Arrow was solid early but spent much of the game watching from the bench and was lost for words at fulltime.

“We embarrassed the state,” Arrow said.

“Greeny wasn’t too happy – there wasn’t much to say other than we got our pants pulled down and we weren’t good enough.

“I suppose things could have been better (with our preparation), it definitely showed in our performance.

“He spoke about our execution at training not being good enough. That is a thing that definitely has to be addressed.

“The intensity was there at the start. It was fast and we tried to get into the grind but they ran away with it.

Defeat was hard to take for Jai Arrow and his teammates.

“You don’t want to be living in the past, but last year in Game Two they pulled our pants down again and Game Three was a totally different story.

“Even if we lost by two points, we were going to take it personally. The mindset won’t change, other than to take it personal.”

Munster and Grant’s last NRL game for Melbourne was on May 6 and they failed to dominate the Blues on the back of Queensland’s beaten forward pack.

Munster won last year’s Wally Lewis Medal after two outstanding performances despite carrying a knee problem and refused to make excuses for Queensland’s poor outing.

“We’re professional athletes, we’re in the highest level of rugby league and we need to perform on the big stage,” he said.

“Our preparation doesn’t matter, you can be out for a month or two months, but you need to have a dig and have a go. We didn’t do that. It’s disrespectful to the jersey.

“I’ve come out and trained like a spud and played well. It’s a tough one, there were a lot of nerves, there’s no words to describe how we played.

“Anyone who puts a Queensland jersey on needs to be better than that and I’m sure Greeny and the coaching will look at the 17 and see who’s in form the next few weeks.”

Originally published as Origin 2021: Coach Paul Green concedes Maroons botched preparation for Townsville opener