A shattered Billy Slater has conceded the New South Wales Blues should have won Game I of the 2025 State of Origin series by a lot more than 18-6 in front of a dejected, sold-out Suncorp Stadium crowd.
While NSW used brute strength and power to break the Maroons down – the visitors struggled with last-play options as the new halves pairing between Nathan Cleary and Mitch Moses failed to fire.
Slater was making no excuses as his side looked a long way from beating the Blues.
“I feel pretty flat about our performance… obviously NSW were much better than us,” Slater said in the press conference.
“The flatness comes from how we hurt ourselves.
“It doesn’t just happen, you’ve got to make it happen.
“We weren’t prepared to make it happen the tough way tonight.
“Too many leg-ups and too many penalties, a few errors, and that is what they did better than us.”
