New South Wales enforcer Mitch Barnett may have finally earned his State of Origin debut in Game III comments he made after his New Zealand Warriors’ heartbreaking field-goal loss to Canterbury on the weekend.

“I’m usually a negative sort of person but after that I was so proud of them,” Barnett told The NZ Herald.

“Everyone had their heads down – I said ‘Get your heads up’.

“If we show that energy and that attitude towards training then results will turn in our favour.

“We got a great response there, we are not happy with losing, it’s okay to be disappointed but we just need to stay in the fight and it will turn.”