Billy Slater's frosty response to reporter's question after Origin II

Maroons coach Billy Slater has bristled at suggestions his side's performance in the 28-point loss to New South Wales in State of Origin Game II was an "embarrassment" to Queensland.

NSW half Nathan Cleary ran riot in the 44-12 thumping, scoring two tries and setting up two more, as the Blues squared the series 1-1 in Perth.

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The Blues were a much more resilient outfit that lost 16-10 in Game I, however it was a controversial sin-binning of Felise Kaufusi at the end of the first half that proved telling.

NSW scored just before halftime to go into the break two points up, and while the Maroons held them out early in the second stanza while reduced to 12 men, it clearly took a toll on the side's energy reserves.

The Blues capitalised on an increasingly fatigued Maroons side in the second half, with Cleary at the heart of most if it as the points piled up on the Queenslanders.

Some of the key stats made ugly reading for the the Maroons, who ran almost 800m less than the Blues, racked up 60 missed tackles and enjoyed just 39% of the possession.

Maroons skipper Daly Cherry-Evans fronted the media with his coach after the game, where he was asked by a reporter if the huge defeat was an "embarrassment for Queensland".

“Geez, they are big words and there’s a lot of titles and headlines the media like to put on certain performances," Cherry-Evans replied.

“The reality is that is what happened, that was the scoreline. These are my teammates, there is not one person that didn’t try their hardest out there tonight. It probably looked like we lost a fair bit of concentration for 30 minutes but I can’t question the effort we put out there.”

The effort of the Maroons players was again questioned when captain and coach were asked if Queensland had "thrown in the towel" in the second half.

Slater was asked another question moments later, but decided to revisit the earlier question about the result being an "embarrassment" for Queensland.

“Going back on the embarrassment thing, I think Queensland will be proud of their team, they put in a whole heap of effort Queensland would be proud of,” Slater said.

“It’s 1-1 in the series and the series will go back to Brisbane, that’s not going to win us the game unless we fix up these concentration errors. They tried really hard, you can’t fault their effort.

“Queensland has always been about effort so they’ll stick together.”

Billy Slater refuses to blame referee for his side's defeat

Slater refused to criticise the officiating of referee Ashley Klein, particularly the sin-binning of Kaufusi at the end of the first half.

"Fatigue plays a part in the game and when you're down to 12 men you are a lot more fatigued," Slater said.

"I'll have to go back and look at the penalties individually but that's the referees' job. We won't use that as an excuse."

Klein had penalised the Maroons for a quartet of infringements late in the first half when NSW were camped on Queensland's line.

Skipper Daly Cherry-Evans twice handed NSW fresh sets of six, while hooker Harry Grant gifted one to the Blues with an attempt to slow down the ruck.

It was the fourth of the infringements which prompted Klein to lay down the law when Kaufusi was part of a tackle to halt NSW prop Junior Paulo on the line.

Kaufusi lay over Paulo for the best part of 10 seconds, prompting Klein to send the Maroons back-rower for a 10-minute spell.

Former NSW coach Phil Gould and Maroons great Paul Vautin took issue with Klein's decision in commentary for the Nine Network, claiming the Maroons deserved a team warning before being reduced to 12.

Cherry-Evans said the Maroons were surprised.

"I felt the decision was made quickly considering the amount of infringements we had," the Queensland skipper said.

"You don't know when you are going to get those decisions against you.

"Every time you get someone sent for 10 it does come as a bit of a shock."

with AAP

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