Here is a club coach defending one of his players if you’ve ever you’ve seen it.

Despite getting a bath in State of Origin I, North Queensland Cowboys Coach Paul Green reckons Queensland centre Justin O’Neill didn’t have a bad game.

O’Neill was bamboozled by opposite Jarryd Hayne and coughed up possession on his own line handing Blues prop Andrew Fifita the easiest of tries.

“There were just a couple of periods there where Hayne got the better of him,” Green said.

“But he also gave Hayne a headache there at one stage too.

“Apart from an error and a line break where Hayne scored I thought his game was pretty solid.

“It’s up to him to bounce back, put that in the past and get his head around playing this weekend.”

It’s expected that O’Neill will drop out of the Maroon side for Game II to make way for Billy Slater to return to the Queensland back line.