The Melbourne five-eighth had missed a month of football with a foot injury and was nowhere near his best in Townsville as NSW piled on the pain in a record 50-6 flogging.

Munsters' last-tackle options didn't hit the mark, he was unable to cause doubt with ball in hand and felt compelled to apologise to Blues back-rower Liam Martin post-game for a kick in frustration that was lucky not to earn him a suspension.

Last year's Origin player of the series wasn't looking to deflect blame.

"I should have got my hands on the ball a lot more, at times I was dangerous when I did," Munster said.

"A month out, but no excuses, I played like I was in a dinner suit tonight and need to roll the sleeves up and get a bit more mongrel."

Coach Paul Green and captain Daly Cherry-Evans were both candid post-game, with the former hinting he may have let some sloppy training efforts go unpunished in his first camp at the helm.

Munster didn't think that was the issue and said even with hooker Harry Grant also missing a chunk of NRL in the lead-up to the clash that was not to blame.

"There's no sugar-coating it; we're professionals, need to perform on the big stage and can be out for a month or whatever, but you need to have a dig and we need to be better," he said.

"I've trained like a spud (in previous years) then come out and played well.

"I probably trained better than I usually do, so that's saying something to myself, maybe I should train worse during the week.

"There's no words to describe how we played; I'm sure Greeny and the coaching staff will have a look at the 17 and make sure we see who's in form in the next couple of weeks."

NSW centre Tom Trbojevic had one of the more dominant Origin performances, roaming both flanks to score three tries and have a hand in everything.

"He's very elusive, loves to get his hands on the ball, finds some energy around the middle so we need to tighten up, need to be better," Munster said, with Game II at Suncorp Stadium on June 27.

"We have some elusive, strong players too but didn't use them...

"(Back-rower) David Fifita, we didn't use him well enough, Gag's (centre Dane Gagai) as well, didn't get much ball in open pasture.

"Val (Holmes) too; we need to tinker with some things and make sure we're playing to our strengths.

"Unfortunately tonight they just wanted it more; it's embarrassing that we were playing in our home state and couldn't get up for it."

Australian Associated Press