NSW halfback Nathan Cleary was less than impressed by the way officials reacted to Queensland forward Jai Arrow’s treatment of a concussed James Tedesco.

Arrow apologised following Queensland’s nail-biting game three State of Origin triumph at Suncorp Stadium after he picked up and then dropped Tedesco when the NSW captain was knocked out in the first half.

Blues coach Brad Fittler said Arrow had shown a lack of respect to Tedesco, who was left flat on his stomach after collecting the knee of Josh Papalii on a kick return.

While Arrow insisted he was unaware Tedesco was concussed and immediately sought help when he realised how injured the Blues’ fullback was, Cleary felt referee Gerard Sutton should have intervened.

“I kind of brought it up to the ref after it. I was like, ‘that’s not really on’, especially when the guy’s knocked out cold on the ground,” Cleary said.

“I’m not the ref but I thought he could have at least looked into it.”

The Blues would go on to lose five-eighth Cody Walker to another head knock in the second half.

Despite that, however, NSW mounted a late comeback and came close to forcing the match into extra-time in the dying minutes.

While disappointed to come out on the losing side, Cleary said he was proud of how a patched-up Blues – which included his Penrith teammate Isaah Yeo playing three-quarters of the game in the centres – had almost snatched an unlikely win on enemy soil.

“It’s pretty hard losing two people in your spine, especially players like that,” Cleary said.

“Both absolute freaks, give really good X-factor for the end of the game and we ended up with two backrowers playing in the centres.

“Out of that, we can be proud that we were in it ’til the end but just something we probably could’ve dealt with a little bit better.”