'I wasn't overly worried': How Maloney bounced back from dual clangers
James Maloney has a unique ability to immediately forget some of the forgettable plays he comes up with.
“It’s never all going to go your way,” Maloney said. “You’re never going to play the perfect game of football. You’re going to make an error, something is going to happen.
“You’ve got 80 minutes. If you have more positive plays than negative plays, you’ll have a positive effect on the side. That’s just footy, I suppose.”
Maloney made plenty of big plays in Origin I. The intercept he threw to gift Valentine Holmes a runaway try is the sort that could have haunted him for the remainder of his career. Just ask Brett Kimmorley.
Yet Maloney never dropped his head and kept asking questions of the Queensland defence until he got the answers he was looking for.
“It wasn’t ideal but I needed to let it go,” he said.
“There was still a long time to go and knew the footy we had in us. I wasn’t overly worried.”
Maloney bounced back from throwing two bad passes that led to Queensland tries to help orchestrate a famous victory. He did so with rookie halves partner and clubmate Nathan Cleary by his side.
Cleary took a back seat as Maloney called most of the shots, but both showed enough to suggest their club success can transfer into the interstate arena.
“He went really good,” Maloney said of Cleary. “It didn’t really surprise me, it’s exactly what I expected from him. He does it wherever he goes. He just does his job, turns up, nothing fazes him. He’ll be better for the run. It was his first Origin, he knows what it’s about. He’ll be better for it.”
Maloney has achieved a lot in the game. Already he has two premierships from three grand final appearances, all for different clubs. There is every chance that he could add another to the tally after leading Penrith to the top of the table. However, an Origin series win has eluded him. That could all change in a fortnight.
“It would mean a heap,” he said. “Obviously I’ve had a crack at it and the three other times we’ve missed, it’s been a two-point difference. There’s never much in it. We’ll see how we go game II.
“It would be awesome to do. NSW deserves it.”
Brad Fittler was amazed by Maloney’s ability to bounce back from a mistake.
“James Maloney, although he gave me a few heart attacks, he was the one that his mindset never changed, regardless of score and time,” Fittler said.