New South Wales Blues head coach Laurie Daley has praised his new halves combination despite what appeared a clunky second half during Game 1 of the 2025 State of Origin series.

Mitchell Moses, who played halfback during the winning effort in last year's decider, shuffled to five-eighth to accomodate the return of Nathan Cleary, who wore the number seven jersey.

Cleary, a four-time premiership winner, was solid in the first half alongside a noticeably quiet Moses, before the pair struggled to get the Blues into gear during the second 40 minutes.

Despite that, Queensland couldn't find a way through a gallant Blues defensive outfit, and wound up falling well short.

Daley said he thought his new halves combination were terrific at both ends of the park.

"I thought they were great. In a game, first time they have played together. It's difficult when you bring new people together, but I thought they were terrific," Daley said on his halves during his post-match press conference.

"Nath really threatened with the ball, and Mitch was good.

"Defensively they were both strong. That's an underrated part of their game as well. Just for little blokes to get in front and make the tackle on big blokes, it's pretty impressive."

In painting reasons for the clunkiness of the game, Daley said the game was 'slow' and that Queensland made life difficult.

"It was one of those games. It was a slow ruck, so you had to go forward. You couldn't move the ball," Daley said

"I was happy with aspects of our game. It was hard to get things on. Their line speed was exceptional, very good, and they controlled the ruck really well. We have areas that we can be better at.

Maybe the biggest concern for the Blues was their goal kicking, where they went zero for four from tries, with Cleary missing three, and Lomax the other.

Cleary kicked a penalty goal earlier in the evening, but Daley hinted that Cleary will remain the kicker heading to Perth.

"I don't know Nath that well because I haven't worked with him, but just to see the way he prepares, I know it would be burning him, and I know he won't be like that again. He will do whatever it takes," Daley said on Cleary's goal kicking.

Captain Isaah Yeo said his side have things to work on from the second half despite Daley's opinion of the performance.

"To come up here, the first half I thought was exceptional, the second half has a bit to work on. It took us a little bit too long to correct ourselves in certain areas, but that's what happens in Origin football. There are swings in momentum, they could feel it too and the tide had turned, so some really big plays in big moments, and we were getting confidence out of that as well," Yeo said.

Game 2 will be played in Perth in three weeks, with the Blues having the chance of putting the series away before returning to Sydney for Game 3.