Billy Slater didn't select a reborn firebrand in his Origin I squad. This is why he must make that change

Total domination is what stared the Maroons in the face after Origin I.

The Blues dominated the middle, they dominated the edges and dominated the match.

Now Queensland faces the near impossible task of winning in Perth and then Sydney.

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So what change does Billy Slater need to make?

Firstly, he needs to fix the side's discipline. This was his major bugbear post-match.

In terms of the stats, the Maroons conceded nine penalties compared to NSW's six.

There were three ruck infringements against them too. NSW had one.

The big problem for the Maroons was the timing of the infractions. The first penalty was inside two minutes when Pat Carrigan was punished for a grapple. Another grapple followed moments later from Tino Fa'asuamaleaui.

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Yet another ill-timed moment came when Moeaki Fotuaika was penalised for a strip, leading to a penalty goal.

That's three penalties inside the first 10 minutes. While it only cost two points, the Maroons were treading water early.

In the final 10, it was even worse. Harry Grant was penalised for crowding when he kicked the ball out of Zac Lomax's hands in the ruck.

"I'm sure Billy Slater will have some stern words for his team," Cameron Smith said on Nine.

Two minutes later, Cameron Munster was penalised for a leg pull. Then Daly Cherry-Evans was punished for lying in the ruck.

Cherry-Evans pleaded with the referee there had been a lot of penalties.

"What do you want me to do?," he said.

"That's a lot of penalties."

Referee Ashley Klein replied: "I appreciate that, and that one there was a little bit unlucky but you were in the ruck ... they're penalties, they're all there so speak to your guys."

Zac Lomax scored in the corner off the back of it.

By then the Maroons were done, even with the late penalty goal before half time.

Now for the big question: how do they fix it?

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Corey Horsburgh, Kurt Mann, Selwyn Cobbo and Murray Taulagi will be the players everyone calls for. The inclusion of Mann would lead to either Tom Dearden missing out or Daly Cherry-Evans being dropped. It's hard to see Slater being that ruthless.

Taulagi isn't back until round 14 while Cobbo is fit and firing now. Cobbo's metres from out the back would be a serious asset to Slater.

To'o finished with 225 run metres while Lomax had 209. 173 metres were recorded for Coates and Valentine Holmes had a disappointing 123 metres.

Holmes was shifted to centre due to Taulagi's injury. That's his better position and it showed. However, Robert Toia was impressive on debut and dropping him would be peculiar.

Holmes and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow struggled to click as a combination too.

Lomax's second try came on their edge off a simple block play when the Hammer was drawn in by Stephen Crichton, leaving Holmes stranded.

The big decision is Horsburgh though and it's intriguing why he wasn't selected in the first place.

Andrew Johns noted the lack of aggression the Maroons had off the bench.

"There wasn't any punch off the bench and without that go forward dominance in the middle it's very hard for the key players to combine," he said.

Lindsay Collins played for 30 minutes after one match for the Roosters off the back of injury. He had eight runs for 78 metres.

Beau Fermor only played 17 minutes and had four runs with 28 metres.

Trent Loiero ran for 62 metres from 10 runs, over 36 minutes.

It's hard to see how that's not a sign for a reborn Horsburgh.

Leading into Origin I, perhaps the one blight on the Raiders prop's game was in the final rehearsal before selection.

Up against the Titans, Canberra had the game sealed at 40-18. Then Fotuaika ran towards the line in the dying stages, with Horsburgh making a bad read in defence and allowing his rival to run straight past him.

However, the Maroons need points. In the 11 matches Horsburgh has played for the Raiders, only on one occasion has he run for less than 100 metres. That happened when the Raiders were flogged by Manly.

Known as a firebrand, Horsburgh has fixed his discipline too. In the first two matches of the NRL season, he conceded no penalties and just one error.

Then when Manly flogged the Raiders, he had one error, two penalties, two ruck infringements and a sin bin. Next round was a loss to the Cowboys, and Horsburgh had two errors and three penalties.

From there, he's been well disciplined. The Raiders have only lost one game since, to the Bulldogs, and Horsburgh didn't play.

He's had four handling errors, four penalties, one ruck infringement and one inside 10 metres call.

His only other sin bin was last round against the Warriors, for a professional foul, in a game the Raiders almost loss.

With Horsburgh and Slater, it's a simple case of if not now, then when?