Panthers skipper James Maloney was born a winner.
The 32-year old has enjoyed a mighty NRL career, leading his team to dual premierships and finals appearances. So it must be hard for the star Blue to stomach that he is yet to capture that elusive first Origin-series win.
The five-eighth has twice played in NSW teams that surrendered 1-0 series leads to the Maroons, and he is keen to atone his previous Origin shortcomings, especially after last year's heartache.
"This is my fourth series and the third time I've been one-up, so I probably understand more than many that there's still a long way to go and a lot of work to do," Maloney toldย nrl.com.
"Last year it took a lot out of me. I remember my wife saying to me at one stage 'I know you're dirty and you're hurting but we're here to help'.
"I was just cranky for a while and snappy at the kids and that's not ideal. It's the mental drain that it takes. It is important. It means a lot to you so it's hard to take.
"You still remember the way it went down, it hurt a bit.
"Hopefully we don't have the same experience this Sunday. You take some lessons out of it and I suppose it just goes to show that despite being one-up there's still a lot of work to do to actually get the result you're chasing and hopefully we can do that on Sunday."
The NSW veteran is a hard one to crack, and when quizzed about a famous Craig Bellamy spray from years back or an untimely turnover in Game I that set up a Queensland try, Maloney remained cool.
"A lot of people have asked me about it, I don't know, it just doesn't seem that bad to me," Maloney said.
"I'm not going to get anything out of kicking stones or worrying about it, I've got to move onto what's next. I think that's a logical way to look at things and that's just how I look at it.
"Something like that it just doesn't seem that hard to me."
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