James Maloney has taken exception to Andrew Johns' scathing verdict that NSW played dumb football and failed to target a visibly injured Johnathan Thurston in the second half of Wednesday night's State of Origin II loss.
Veteran five-eighth Maloney admits the Blues lost their way in the extraordinary fade-out against Queensland and only hoped it would drive them to overturn more than a decade of series-decider misery at Suncorp Stadium next month.
Johns let rip after the 18-16 loss, blasting "the dumbest half of football NSW have played" that blew a deserved 16-6 halftime lead at ANZ Stadium.
"I wouldn't say dumb footy," Maloney countered on Thursday.
"I think we lost our way and probably didn't play how we needed to.
"We started going laterally and lost a lot of our punch. We need to fix that up.
"But we knew all along we'd decide the result and we did, it was just the wrong way."
Johns took particular issue with the Blues' failure to target Thurston, who was clearly struggling with a shoulder injury before he slotted the match-winning conversion.
NRL immortal and Blues legend Johns said the fact NSW didn't "go at him the whole game" was "rubbish".
"I think we got him at times," Maloney said. "You can't get bogged down chasing one guy.
"We had a lot of success wearing their middles out.
"When we did that and put them in a corner they lost a lot of options, their backs had to come in and carry them out of trouble so they had no one to move the ball to."
Despite coach Laurie Daley's refereeing misgivings, Maloney absolved the whistleblowers of blame.
According to Maloney, decisions against the Blues "didn't decide the game, we decided the game and we needed to be better".
"If we had have got to completions in that last 15 minutes it would have been a different story.
"We seemed to get to halfway and have a turnover, and when we got down there they got a penalty, so they seemed to spend 15 minutes in our end.
"They're too good a side, you give them opportunities time and time again and eventually they'll get the job done."
Maloney was more intent on proving NSW's restored underdog tag wrong in the July 12 finale, when the Maroons will attempt to farewell champion Thurston a winner at home.
The Blues have lost the past six Origin deciders dating back to the beginning of the Maroons reign in 2006, Thurston's second series in the interstate arena.
"The disappointment hurts but I think that can drive you, we don't want to feel like this after game three so it gives us a bit of motivation," Maloney said.
"We were better than them in game one, and I thought we were better last night without getting the job done.
"So there's no reason we can't be again."
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