NSW v QLD - State of Origin Game 2
PERTH, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 26: James Tedesco of the Blues is tackled by Kurt Capewell of the Maroons during game two of the State of Origin series between New South Wales Blues and Queensland Maroons at Optus Stadium on June 26, 2022 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

New South Wales Blues State of Origin coach Brad Fittler has been left surprised over how disjointed his side looked during the opening clash of the series in a narrow loss to Queensland in Adelaide.

The Blues often struggled to string players together and hold onto the ball in attack, with it showing on the scoreboard.

The ball often hit the ground, stunting their attacking play, and captain Tedesco may well have had his worst game in a Sky Blue jumper. Halfback Nathan Cleary wasn't far behind him.

Despite enjoying the lion's share of possession and territory, the Blues found themselves unable to breach a strong Queensland defensive line, and coach Fittler admitted post-game that he was surprised at how disjointed the Blues appeared with the ball in hand.

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"Yeah, I was actually [surprised by how disjointed the Blues were]," Fittler said during his post-game press conference.

"I'll have to go back and see what they did in defence too to see if it made a difference, but it felt like we had enough opportunities to adapt, but I was a bit disappointed. We seemed to have enough good ball."

Fittler admitted his side didn't handle the final ten minutes of the game well, having taken the lead before being handed a man advantage by Queensland prop Thomas Flegler being sin-binned.

"When we got to the front, I was pretty excited. The fact that we had the bad start, and then they just kept going. Things didn't look that smooth, but we got to the front, got a restart, and from there, we just went downhill," Fittler said.

"I thought the last ten minutes we didn't handle very well at all. Especially when they were down to 12 and I'll go back and look at how that all happened, but I thought we were in control, and then from there it just went backwards."

Captain James Tedesco admitted the side's attack wasn't smooth.

"It probably wasn't smooth," Tedesco said.

"We fought our way back into the game through hard work and effort, but we probably didn't nail some big moments that they did, especially at the end there.

"It felt like we were in control. We worked very hard to get back into the game. We wanted to be patient with the ball in the last ten minutes, but after the drop out we didn't get the ball back and it went downhill from there.

"I'm not sure what to put that down too."

The Blues will now face a must-win game in Brisbane to get back into the series on June 21.