A “disappointed” Laurie Daley has declared he is “most definitely” the coach to take the NSW Blues back to glory in the Origin arena after Queensland sealed the series on Wednesday night.
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Daley’s Blues homecoming got started on a winning note with a strong 18-6 victory in Suncorp Stadium to put all the pressure on rival coach Billy Slater, but the former Maroons fullback stood up in the face of scrutiny to mastermind a stunning turnaround.
Daley, on the other hand, remained loyal despite a Game 2 defeat as he became the first Blues coach to name the same 17 in consecutive Origin games since the 2020 decider.
That game also ended in heartbreak for NSW and while it was understandable that Daley didn’t make major changes, especially given the Blues actually scored more tries than the Maroons, there was still a genuine argument for a fresh face on the bench.
Instead, Daley backed the same side in and on Wednesday night confidently claimed he has the core group to turn NSW’s fortunes around in 2026.
“I think what we’ve been building,” Daley responded when asked why he was the man to coach the Blues next year.
“While I was disappointed with the result, I think the players have had a really good campaign. We just sort of didn’t nail the moments, so we’ve got to make sure that we’re better at that.
“I don’t see any reason why that group can’t (win). It’s hard to win Origin series back-to-back. We know that. I think we’ve only won five back-to-back series in 45 years, so it’s difficult. Queensland losing last year, was always going to bounce back… so no issues there.”
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While frustrated that his team made another “bad start”, Daley opened his press conference by saying he was “very proud” of the way the Blues fought, adding: “It just wasn’t our night”.
“We played some good footy, but they just won some moments,” he said.
“It felt like, at times, we were sort of defending three tackles really well and the fourth tackle they sort of made half a break and got a bit of line speed and played the ball and then (were) kicking (themselves) out of trouble.
“It’s just little things like that that happened in that first half that we felt like it was an arm wrestle, but all of a sudden they just won a moment which gave them a bit of momentum to create some points.”
Those little moments leading to bigger ones and, then, eventually tries was a common theme from Daley in his press conference.
The Blues coach admitted even he was at a loss to explain his team’s slow starts to games after NSW also found itself on the wrong end of a 26-6 deficit at halftime in Game 2.
“It’s a good question. Something we need to find out,” Daley said.
“We’ll look into that and what we think we need to be better at. Obviously you don’t get another opportunity this year. We’ll see what we’re better at and do it next year.”
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NSW’s attack was uncharacteristically clunky, with Queensland’s rushing defence causing all kinds of problems for the Blues despite the fact skipper Isaah Yeo conceded they knew it was coming.
“They did a really good job on their edges, the way they were defending it and jamming, which we sort of knew that they were going to,” Yeo said.
Meanwhile, when Daley was asked by one reporter why he thought NSW’s attack was so disorganised, the Blues coach deferred the question to Yeo, adding that he would be better placed to answer it as he was on the field.
“I reckon we could have showed more of that (patience),” Yeo said.
“There were times there where you sort of felt you made half a linebreak and there’d maybe be five or six (Queensland players) come across, which you expect at this level.”
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While Daley didn’t have many answers for Queensland’s swarming defence, he did inject Hudson Young and Connor Watson into the game early in the second half in a bid to turn the result back in NSW’s favour.
There were suggestions Daley could have used the pair earlier though, especially with starting hooker Reece Robson having to shoulder so much work in defence.
“We’ve used Hudson differently in both games,” Daley said when quizzed on the use of both Young and Watson.
“We used him after halftime in game one, before halftime in game two. Connor, we just felt like we started to get a bit of ruck speed there in the second half, so we wanted to play with a bit of speed, so that’s the reason why we put him out there, and we’d only used I think two interchanges.”
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As for any criticism of the decision to play a compromised Payne Haas and Brian To’o, Daley had a pretty simple — and convincing — response.
“Payne didn’t train in game one and got man of the match and then Brian got players’ player in game two and didn’t do much training,” the Blues coach said.
“It might be different if they’re younger boys. But those two, never. Once we got given the all clear with them, we trusted them and we knew they’d do the job.”
