Queensland can’t blame a horror preparation for their State of Origin loss to NSW, according to Maroons playmaker Cameron Munster.

The Maroons were outplayed 22-12 by the Blues in game one at the MCG but Munster said his team would take plenty of belief to Sydney later this month as they bid to level the series.

Queensland’s preparation was in disarray when veteran fullback Billy Slater was forced out with a hamstring injury just two days before the game, and then winger Dane Gagai suffered a painful compound dislocation of his finger, although still made it out on to the field.

Halfback Ben Hunt also carried the remnants of a badly corked leg into the match.

“With Bill going down on our preparation was a bit scratchy,” Munster said.

“But we can’t make excuses – they were really good and hopefully we can be as good next game.”

The Storm No.6 said he didn’t think Gagai, who scored an early second half try, would play after the injury at their final training run.

“Gags (Gagai) took a lot of carries when we needed it, Ben Hunt was great and Morgs (Michael Morgan) did a great job at fullback,” Munster said.

“I thought it was one of his best games of the year.”

While he said their execution let them down, Munster felt his team didn’t have much luck in the end-to-end encounter, with just two points separating the teams at halftime.

A loose ball from Gagai was ruled an error, although it appeared to be a strip, with the Blues crossing in the next set while Josh Addo-Carr’s late try looked like it came from a forward pass.

“There wasn’t much in it, just those fifty-fifty calls didn’t go our way and NSW rode that luck,” Munster said.

The 23-year-old said that his team had the talent and right game plan to take it to the Blues in game two.

“We have that belief; we have a lot of great talent coming through and some exciting speed so we just need to execute our game plan a bit better in game two,” Munster said.