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Queensland forward Josh Papalii has savaged his own performance in State of Origin II and has vowed to be better in game three on Wednesday night.
Queensland forward Josh Papalii has delivered an ominous warning to the Blues, vowing to get better in the State of Origin decider in Brisbane on Wednesday night.
The Australia and Canberra prop has never shied away from owning a bad performance and did as much after a heavy loss to the Blues in game two in Sydney.
Although he scored a late try, he was kept to just 75 running metres compared to the 112 he churned out for a win in Adelaide in Origin I a week prior.
"I have to (take responsibility)," he said following Wednesday night's 34-10 loss to NSW.
"Being the oldest in the middle there, being more experienced than the younger fellas coming through.
"I feel like that was a lot of my fault for not setting the platform for Chez (Dally Cherry-Evans) and Benny Hunt to play off.
"I'll take that."
His ownership spells danger for the Blues because what typically follows is Papalii on beast mode.
It happened after the Raiders lost a miserable game to a depleted Manly side in round six earlier this year and he savaged his own form.
The loss proved a turning point for the injury-hit Raiders, who then went on to beat Sydney Roosters in a grand-final rematch a month later - led by Papalii.
At the time coach Ricky Stuart said he had a conversation with Papalii who analyses his own game honestly, and he quickly saw results.
For Queensland's sake, the Maroons' hard man will do similar soul searching heading into Wednesday night's decider.
"It's going to be awesome," he said.
"We get to play in front of the family again and that gets me going a bit.
"I don't want to take anything away from NSW and they're on the brink of winning three years in a row and we have to try and make that not happen.
"I'm the oldest in the middle there and I'm very disappointed in my performance.
"I just have to be better and hopefully the younger boys get off the back of that."