Queensland Maroons star Harry Grant has vowed to cast aside a rare State of Origin shocker, with his sights fixed on orchestrating a comeback.
The marquee hooker has often risen once he steps into rugby leagueโs most heated furnace, but in Wednesday nightโs 18-6 defeat he looked a shadow of the man regarded as the gameโs leading rake.
He was hardly helped playing alongside a forward pack who were simply outmatched and beaten physically by their rampant Blues rivals, who โ led by man-of-the-match Payne Haas โ were clinical through the middle, as five members of their engine room surpassed 100 running metres.
Harry Grant of the Maroons looks dejected after game one.Credit: Getty Images
But after running for just 23 metres while committing a sloppy error, conceding a penalty, missing five tackles and putting a poorly placed bomb out of dummy-half that led to a seven-tackle set, Grant cut a dejected figure in the Maroons dressing room.
However, sporting stitches above his nose with blood still drying from a head clash, Grant was emphatic in his belief Queensland could write the wrongs that played out at Suncorp Stadium.
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โPersonally, I feel very disappointed. In some moments of the game I let the team down with some penalties and ill-discipline, and then they just got a fair bit of momentum and went on and capitalised,โ Grant said.
โIf youโre not committed or dominant with your contact theyโre on the roll, and then you start looking for those ways to claw your way back into the game, then that ill-discipline creeps in.
โThere are moments in games that can deflate you, and maybe we got a little bit deflated in certain parts when we didnโt execute what we wanted to, or we gave them leg-ups out of their own half.
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